



iopight N° 



(■OI'YRH.IIT DEPOSIT. 



MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 



MAGIC AND 
HUSBANDRY 

THE FOLK-LORE OF AGRICULTURE 



RITES, CEREMONIES, CUSTOMS, AND BELIEFS CONNECTED 

WITH PASTORAL LIFE AND THE CULTIVATION OF 

THE SOIL; WITH BREEDING AND THE 

CARE OF CATTLE; WITH FRUIT- 

GROWING, BEES, AND FOWLS 



BY 
LEWIS DAYTON BURDICK 

M 
Member of American Association for the Advancement of Science 

Member of American Folk-Lore Society 
Author of " Foundation Rites " 



9 



1905 
THE OTSENINGO PUBLISHING CO., 

BINGHAMTON, N. Y. 



II 

Sfcp 2i 8905 

_ < 

COPV a. 






*tf 



Copyright, 1905, 

BY 

The Herald Company of Binghamton 






" The oldest and most beautiful charms of all nations pass into prayers, 
which were repeated during sacrifice ; the simplest are found in pastoral life." 
— Grimm's " Teutonic Mythology ," Translation of James Steven Stally brass, p. 
I233> 

"After all, what we call truth is only the hypothesis which is found to 
work best." — J. G. Frazer's " The Golden Bough," i. 450. 



PREFACE 



In preparing this volume the writer has endeavored to 
avoid such a multiplication of references as would be con- 
fusing or burdensome to the reader, and yet^at the same 
time sufficiently to indicate the sources of information 
which he has found most helpful, and to give due credit 
to authors from whose works quotations have been made. 

He is convinced that more of the customs, beliefs, and 
ceremonial institutions that to so great an extent make 
up our social life and civilization are connected with early 
agriculture than has been generally acknowledged. 

Some reader of the following pages will say, perchance, 
that many things noted therein ought to be forgotten. 
Other readers will find all that has, at one time or another, 
had some influence in the upward progress of man, of deep 
and absorbing interest. In all the story of human history 
there is surely no page that can be written truthfully just 
as we might wish to have it, yet who shall say that it 
would be wise to efface it if we could? 

The author is disposed to look charitably upon all the 
beLiefs, however crude, which at any time have influenced 
human conduct, believing that the widest latitude possi- 
ble should be allowed for the exercise of individual free- 
dom, and that superstition is a word too frequently used 
incautiously and unwittingly to characterize whatever 
does not harmonize with the convictions and teachings of 
our own period of time and stage of development, some 
of which, it is possible, a few centuries hence, will have 
become as obsolete as others that we have now outgrown. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGB 

I. Antiquity and Origin of Cultivation 1 

II. Preparing for the Crop 14 

III. Plowing 31 

IV. Sowing and Planting 47 

V. Making Productive 67 

VI. Making the Weather 91 

VII. Lunar and Planetary Influence 121 

VIII. Protecting the Herds . . 135 

IX. Healing 158 

X. Fires 173 

XI. Processions and Litanies 190 

XII. Making the Herds Prolific 205 

XIII. Trial and Punishment of Animals ........ 225 

XIV. Harvesting ' 237 

XV. Fruit-Growing 255 

XVI. Bees 268 

XVII. Fowls 281 

Index . 2'93 

ix 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Antiquity and Origin of Cultivation 1 

II. Preparing for the Crop 14 

III. Plowing 31 

IV. Sowing and Planting 47 

V. Making Productive 67 

VI. Making the Weather . 91 

VII. Lunar and Planetary Influence 121 

VIII. Protecting the Herds . . 135 

IX. Healing 158 

X. Fires 173 

XI. Processions and Litanies 190 

XII. Making the Herds Prolific 205 

XIII. Trial and Punishment of Animals 225 

XIV. Harvesting 237 

XV. Fruit-Growing 255 

XVI. Bees 268 

XVII. Fowls 281 

Index . 293 



MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

CHAPTER I 

ANTIQUITY AND ORIGIN OF CULTIVATION 

" Who can see the green earth any more 
As she was by the sources of Time? 
Who imagines her fields as they lay 
In the sunshine, unworn by the plow? 
Who thinks as they thought, 
The tribes who then roam'd on her breast, 
Her vigorous, primitive sons ? " x 

The attitude of primitive humanity in the first stages of 
agricultural development we cannot possibly comprehend. 
Some knowledge of cultivation preceded all written rec- 
ords, and goes back to a period when they knew nothing 
of cause and effect, and nothing of physical laws. In the 
earliest days of the oldest nations of which we have any. 
knowledge they were already proficient in agricultural 
science. 

The oldest of the Greek historians describes agricul- 
tural life among the Babylonians, and their manner of 
artificially fertilizing the date palm, 2 a process pictured in 
earliest Assyrian art. The earliest Egyptian paintings 
were executed upon the walls of the tombs for nobles con- 
nected with the reign of King Khufu, builder of the Great 
Pyramid, and go back six thousand years. In these paint- 
ings are depicted agricultural scenes, — herdsmen, with 
their herds — men plowing, and making wine. 3 A 

lu The Future," Matthew Arnold. 

2 " Herodotus," i. 193. 

'"Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers," Amelia B. Edwards, p. 71. 



2 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

drawing representing figs was found in the Great Pyr- 
amid. 4 In the oldest extant manuscript, itself but a copy 
of one a millennium older, the feudal lord, Ptah-Hotep, 
in the fifth Egyptian Dynasty, wrote among his precepts : 
" If thou art an agriculturist, gather the harvest in the 
field which the great God has given thee "; and the papy- 
rus of the scribe Ani, a thousand years before the Christian 
Era, admonished cultivators . " to surround the tilled earth 
with hedges." 5 In their earliest historical times the 
Egyptians had carefully noted the limits of the nomes or 
districts, the amount of cultivated land in each, and the 
amount of land available for agricultural purposes after a 
high Nile. 6 Contract tablets have been found of the days 
of the Babylonian king Hammurabi, 2250 B. C, relating 
to the construction of irrigating ditches for overflowing 
and making productive the fields. 7 The oldest poetry of 
the Greeks tells the story of the pledge of " a fair demesne 
of fifty plow-gates, the half thereof vine-land and the half 
open plowland " to Meleagros for assisting the Aito- 
lians, 8 and Hesiod has pictured on the shield of Hercules 
plowers cleaving the rich earth, and reapers with their 
sharp sickles cutting the thick-standing crop. Seventy 
kinds of grain and plants are mentioned in the old 
" Chinese Book of Poetry," and one of their peasant 
songs of early date runs: 

" We rise at sunrise, 
We rest at sunset, 
Dig wells and drink, 
Till our fields and eat — 
What is the strength of the emperor to us? " 

4 "Origin of Cultivated Plants," Alphonse de Candolle, p. 3. 
""Oldest Books in the World," Isaac Myer, pp. 76, 151. 
' " The Mummy," E. A. Wallis Budge, p. 8. 
'"Primitive Civilization," E. J. Simcox, i. 283. 
8 Iliad, ix. 580, Lang, Leaf and Myers. 



ANTIQUITY OF CULTIVATION 3 

Yet for four thousands years, says Mr. Simcox, " the 
strength of the empire has been in the agricultural peas- 
antry, who ask nothing from the emperor but to be let 
wisely alone." 9 The indebtedness of this ancient civiliza- 
tion to agriculture, and its importance as affecting the ma- 
terial and moral welfare, is expressed in the language of 
an imperial manifesto in a year of scarcity nearly two 
centuries before the Christian Era : " Crime begins in pov- 
erty; poverty in insufficiency of food; insufficiency of food 
in neglect of agriculture." 10 

Pliny says the earliest surnames among the Romans 
were derived from agriculture and agricultural imple- 
ments : from the pestle for pounding corn came Pilumnus, 
and Piso from the word expressing the act of grinding 
corn; leguminous plants, in the cultivation of which they 
excelled, supplied the names of Lentulus and Cicero; the 
first figure impressed on money was that of a sheep, and 
from pecus, a sheep, came pecunia, money. In the days of 
Cato the highest compliment to a man was to call him a 
good husbandman. 11 The poet Cowley says the first wish 
of Virgil was to be a good philosopher, and the second, 
a good husbandman; and Cicero, that the pleasures of a 
husbandman come very nigh to those of a philosopher. 

When considerable progress has been made in civiliza- 
tion and the earliest efforts in agriculture have become 
more or less forgotten, when the literary instinct has been 
somewhat developed and national pride stimulated, it has 
then been characteristic of nations and peoples to seek to 
connect the origin of things specifically with their own 
national divinities. Loyalty and patriotism, the lack of 
actual knowledge, their own vanity and conceit, the ten- 

* " Primitive Civilization," ii. 46. 

"Ibid. ii. 112. 

""Natural History," xviii. 3; xxxiii. 13. 



4 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

dency to attribute to the supernatural whatever they could 
not understand, all these prepared the way for the ac- 
cepted belief that they were specially favored by God, or 
the gods, by whom specific revelations were made to them. 
In this way various peoples came to believe that it was to 
their own tribal deities that the world was indebted for in- 
struction in the cultivation of certain products, and even 
for the products themselves at the commencement of their 
acquaintance with them. The more important was the 
part that a certain product of the earth played in their 
own national life, the more certain they became that it 
was to their own national or tribal god that they were 
indebted for it primarily. The ripe fruit and grain fell 
perfected from their hands, and by divine instruction their 
people were taught how to reproduce them. Sometimes to 
their kings, emperors, or great heroes these functions were 
attributed, or by them the first knowledge of plants and 
vegetables was said to have been communicated, but this 
was along the same line of thinking, and another way of 
expressing the same conception, as in earliest thought 
deities and kings were not likely to be clearly differentiated, 
and might be synonymous. 

The Chinese attributed the introduction of grains and 
the establishment of husbandry to the miraculously con- 
ceived son of Kiang Yiin. The festal odes in the sacred 
"Book of Poetry" commemorate his beneficence; and 
sacrifices were offered in his honor. 

" O Tsih, thou prince accomplished, 
Worthy to link with Heaven, 
Grain giver to our nation ! u 

With him a hundred blessings came — 
The millets, the early and the late, 
And late and early pulse and wheat. 

13 " The Shi King," William Jennings, IV. i, 10. 



ANTIQUITY OF CULTIVATION 5 

He set his folk to till the fields, 
So had they grain for sacrifice, 
The millets black and white, and rice." 13 

The fruits of the earth are ascribed to the goodness of 
Buddha : 

" The production of a grain of rice is as great a work 
as the creation of a mountain. 

" Had it not been for the power of Buddha, where 
should we have found our food? " 14 

It was the goddess Ceres who taught the Romans the 
cultivation o>f wheat. The production of the crop was 
the united duty of Ceres and Tellus. To one was traced 
the origin, the other contributed the environment. Part- 
ners in toil, they civilized antiquity, and replaced the 
acorn of the oak with a more wholesome food. 15 

To the Hebrews, the fiat of Jahveh brought forth 
" grass and herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree 
yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself." 16 It was he who 
formed every plant of the field before it grew, while yet it 
had not rained upon the earth, and there was not a man 
to till the ground. 17 

The Egyptians attributed to the goddess Isis the dis- 
covery of wheat and barley. At her festivals stalks of the 
grains were carried in processions in honor of her because 
of the great boon conferred upon men. Greek writers 
describe her as the mother of the ears of corn and the 
fruits of the earth. 18 

At the advent of the Spaniard in America all the civil- 

13 " The Shi King " IV. iv. 4. 

u -"The Lore of Cathay," W. A. P. Martin, 255, quoting from a manu- 
script volume written by the abbot of a monastery in the Western Hills. 
15 Ovid's "Fasti," i. 673. 
18 Genesis, i. 12. 
"Ibid. ii. 5. 
18 " The Golden Bough," ii. 146. 



6 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

ized nations had been farmers back to the limits of their 
traditional history. Maize, upon which was their chief 
dependence, was associated in their legends with the gods 
and the creation of man. It was the gift of the Great 
Spirit, brought from the terrestrial paradise by the sacred 
animals. It was the symbolical mother of the human race. 
Centeotl, the goddess of the maize, a deity of many, names 
and characters, because of the importance of this grain, 
always held an important place in their pantheon. She 
was the source of the power which sustained life. Chil- 
dren were dependent upon her for life and sustenance. In 
her burnt clay images she held one in her arms. In the 
earlier traditions she was content with offerings of flowers 
and bananas and the yellow maize. The quetzal bird sang 
its song at midnight to her, the glorious one born in Para- 
dise, who came from the place of flowers, or as another of 
the ancient hymns says, from the " cerulean home of the 
fishes." 19 

Maize was the substance out of which man was de- 
veloped, in some of the native legends. In a Nahua 
record he was formed by God from ashes, and perfected 
by Quetzalcoatl, who then, in the guise of a black ant, 
crawled to Tonacatepetl, the mount of subsistence, where 
he found maize and brought it to Tamoanchan. Of it the 
gods ate, and put it in the mouth of man and he became 
strong. 20 

The culture-god, Bohica, in the guise of a white man 
with a long beard, appeared to the Indians of Bogota and 
taught them to sow, and organized for them a govern- 
ment, after which he retired for two thousand years. Sume, 
of the Brazilians, a white man with a thick beard, came 
across the ocean from the direction of the rising sun. He 

19 " Rig Veda Americanus," D. G. Brinton, p. 54. 
,0 " Native Races," v. 193. 



ANTIQUITY OF CULTIVATION 7 

commanded the winds and storms. The trees of the forest 
receded before him. He introduced agriculture and taught 
the people to cultivate and use the maize, after which, 
retiring from the country, he left the prints of his feet on 
the rocks and sands, which are still visible. 21 

According to the annals of the Quiches, the creation of 
man was subsequent to the gift of the maize, and depend- 
ent upon it. Yellow maize and white maize entered into 
the formation of his legs and arms. They were the first 
fathers. Nine drinks made from the ground maize gave 
the first nourishment and strength to man. 22 

In Cherokee mythology, corn sprang from the blood 
of an old woman murdered by her wicked sons. 

A legend of the Seneca and Iroquois Indians made the 
corn plant spring from the bosom of the mother of the 
Great Spirit after her burial. In Osage tradition, man- 
kind came from the lower world by different ways, and 
with many adventures. Four buffalo bulls coming near 
them, the first one rolled on the ground and as he arose an 
ear of red corn and a pumpkin fell from his left hind leg; 
as the second bull rolled and came to his feet an ear of 
spotted corn and a spotted pumpkin fell from his left hind 
leg ; from the third bull came dark corn and a dark pump- 
kin in like manner; and from the fourth bull the corn and 
pumpkins were white. 23 Other Indian legends of the be- 
ginning of cultivation with them say that the Great Spirit 
gave to the three elder brothers, the Mohawks, the Sene- 
cas, and the Onondagas — to one corn, to one beans, and to 
the third squashes. Again, that all corn and beans orig- 
inally came from the great god Kautantowit's field in the 

31 " Native Races," v. 24. 

22 Ibid. ii. 717. 

23 J. Owen Dorsey, in Sixth Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology, 379; 
" Myths of the Cherokee," James Mooney, in Nineteenth Annual Report 
of Bureau of Ethnology, 43a. 



8 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

southwest, from which a crow first brought a grain of corn 
in one ear and a French or Indian bean in the other. Or 
again, they sprang from the great magician Masswawe- 
inini, who, while hunting out on the wide prairie, met a 
small man with a red feather on his head, with whom he 
smoked and wrestled. On the ground where the little 
man fell was found, after the magician disappeared, a 
crooked ear of mondamin, with a red, hairy tassel, and a 
voice directed the little man to strip the ear and throw the 
fragments on the ground and scatter the broken spine near 
the edge of the field. In a moon the little man, returning, 
found the field filled with growing corn, and luxuriant 
pumpkin vines had sprung from the broken cob. As he 
returned in the autumn again to gather the ripe fruit he 
heard a voice saying: " Masswaweinini, you have con- 
quered me, and thus saved your own life. Victory has 
crowned your efforts, and now my body shall forever nour- 
ish the human race." 24 

From time immemorial the maguey plant has been of 
great importance in Mexican life, furnishing food, drink, 
and clothing; and its origin, too, legend credits to the gods, 
who metamorphosed Mayaguil, on account of her fruit- 
fulness and four hundred breasts, into the divine plant. 25 

In like manner natives of the Society Islands have con- 
ceived of a human origin for their principal products, 
those upon which they are most dependent for subsistence. 
The chestnut sprang from man's kidneys, and yams from 
his legs. In a story preserved by Ellis of the origin of the 
breadfruit, it is said that in the earliest times in the reign 
of a certain king, when the people lived on red earth, the 
father of a sickly son who could not eat the red earth 
voluntarily died that in answer to his prayers he might be 

24 W. M. Beauchamp in Journal of American Folk-Lore, vols, xi., xlii. 
K " Native Races," iii. 351, note. 



ANTIQUITY OF CULTIVATION 9 

turned into food such as his invalid son might eat and 
live, and his wife, following his directions, planted his 
head in a certain place and his heart and stomach in 
another, and patiently waited the growth of a large and 
handsome tree with broad, shining leaves and loaded with 
breadfruit. 26 

Unable to comprehend the gradual development from 
the rude beginnings of his earlier ancestors, primitive man, 
in divers ways, supernaturally accounts for the culture he 
has attained, and accepts the results as gifts from the benefi- 
cent gods. Not unmindful of his own hard experiences 
in the cultivation of the soil, he is deeply impressed with 
the belief, in some earlier period, of spontaneous produc- 
tivity, when without toil earth teemed with abundance. 
Of that happy age of luxury and innocence ancient chron- 
iclers have told and poets have sung. The ancient poet 
of the Greeks has written of that period of glad content 
which reigned with Saturn before Prometheus stole the 
fire from Heaven and challenged the wrath of Jove, 

" Whilom on earth the sons of men abode 
From evil free." 

It was then that 

" The grain-exuberant soil 
Poured the full harvest, uncompell'd by toil." " 

The sentiment was revoiced in the glowing numbers of 
the Roman poets. Virgil says that tilling the fields was 
impious in that happy age, for, when unsolicited, the earth 
brought forth more freely of all things. Streams of wine 
then ran in every brook. 

" No walls were yet ; nor fence, nor moat, nor mound," M 

28 " Polynesian Researches," William Ellis, i. 66. 
2 '' Hesiod, "Works and Days," 160. 
28 Ovid's " Metamorphoses," i. 89. 



io MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

wrote the Latin poet. And many centuries afterwards, in 
the wilderness, on the banks of the James River in 
Virginia, the earliest literary production in America was 
a new version of his " Golden Age " : 

"The golden age was first; which uncompeld, 
And without rule, in faith and truth exceld, 
And then, there was nor punishment nor fear; 

In firm content 
And harmless ease their happy days were spent, 
The yet free earth did of her own accord 
(Untorn with plows) all sorts of fruits afford; 

'Twas always Spring; warm Zephyrus sweetly blew 
Of smiling flowers, which without setting grew. 
Forthwith the earth, corn unmanured bears; 
With milk and nectar were the rivers fill'd ; 
And yellow honey from green elms distilled." ** 

In the native American hero myths the period of this 
Golden Age was during the reign of the hero god Quet- 
zalcoatl, who came in his shell canoe from the land of the 
sunrise. Then earth yielded all desired things in abun- 
dance. The ears of the maize grew so large that it required 
a strong man to carry one of them, the pumpkin girded a 
fathom or more, and without any dye the cotton yielded 
plentifully of all desired colors. 30 

Cervantes has made the stout cork trees, of their Own 
courtesy, divest themselves of their bark to cover human 
habitations in this happy period when there was no toil de- 
manded of men, and when " as yet the heavy coulter of 
the crooked plow had not dared to force open, and search 
into, the tender bowels of our first mother, who, uncon- 
strained, offered from every part of her fertile bosom 

29 George Sandys, 1826. 
80 " Native Races," iii. 274. 



ANTIQUITY OF CULTIVATION n 

whatever might feed, sustain, and delight these, her chil- 
dren, who then had her in possession." 31 

Milton has painted the happy rural scene wherein were 
beheld 

" Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm; 
Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind, 
Hung amiable — and of delicious taste," 

and where grew 

" Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose." M 

But a more modern poet has reversed the conception of 
Milton, and connected the origin of the rose with the 
shedding of blood upon the earth : 

" The summer came to Paradise 
A thousand years and more ; 
But still the carrier winds that went 
No rose-scent up to heaven bore, 
Till man to Eden's garden came, 
And Cain his brother slew; 
Then where the earth drank in the blood 
The primal rosebush sprang and grew." 33 

Does the study of the earliest beliefs of primitive 
humanity warrant the acceptance of the interpretation of 
the greater or lesser poet as the expression of the mental 
attitude of the primeval agriculturist? Following the tra- 
ditions of the Hebrews, Milton has made the beginning of 
cultivation coincident with the entrance of sin into the 
world. When the subtle serpent entered into Paradise, 
the ground became accursed and brought forth only thorns 
and thistles, being only made productive by the labor of 

31 " Don Quixote," Book ii. chapter 3, Jarvis' translation. 

32 " Paradise Lost," iv. 248. 

33 M. V. Moore. 



12 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

man and the sweat of his brow. From the close relation- 
ship of the Babylonian creation tablets to the story of the 
Hebrews, it is probable that yet undeciphered records may 
show that similar beliefs prevailed among the Babylonians 
of the disobedience and fall of man. The famous cylinder 
discovered by George Smith, with a representation of the 
tree of life, gives strong coloring to this conclusion. The 
tree stands between the human couple whose hands reach 
out after its fruit, while the tempting serpent, erect, stands 
in an attitude of confidence close behind the female figure. 
One story may not have been copied from the other neces- 
sarily, yet both are evidently closely related, and may have 
been derived from the same source. 

The Hebrew story of the two brothers and their rivalry 
in their sacred offerings, culminating in the tragedy of 
Cain, marks the transition of the Hebrew people from their 
more strictly pastoral to the agricultural life. It was 
impious to till the ground in the benign age of Saturn. 
The fruit offerings of Cain were less acceptable to Jahveh. 
The cultivation of the soil was forbidden by Abasi, the 
Calabar god, according to East African legends, till the 
temptation of the woman of the first pair, when came 
the beginning of agriculture as a punishment inflicted upon 
the race. Elsewhere 34 the author has written of the per- 
vading animistic belief of primitive man in the necessity 
for the propitiation of the earth goddess before trespassing 
upon her domain. He stood in awe of the dangers which 
threatened him if the earth was disturbed, in its peace- 
ful repose, without conciliation and atonement. Born of 
primitive animism, belief in traditional hostility to the 
cultivation of the soil in primeval times survived. Drink- 
ing up a brother's blood, the angry earth spirit, appeased, 
evermore consents to the harrowing of her bosom. 

34 " Foundation Rites," n. 



ANTIQUITY OF CULTIVATION 13 

Deeply impressed with his own sad experiences, and too 
little appreciative of the goodness of things, man, looking 
across the great abyss of the past and failing to perceive 
his own gradual development, seeks to account for the un- 
satisfactory conditions of his present surroundings. He 
has postulated an impossible period in the ages gone, when 
all desired things came unsolicited. Self-conscious of his 
own imperfections, he charges up to his ancestors the 
responsibility, not yet realizing that in the loftier aspira- 
tions of his higher development are found the true sources 
of his increased activities and unsatisfied longings. 



CHAPTER II 

PREPARING FOR THE CROP 

"They shall dance for the increase 
And strength of the corn seed, 
Of each grain making many — 
Each grain that ye nourish 
With new soil and water ! " * 

Turn which way one will, the conviction is strengthened 
and deepened that the earliest efforts in cultivation of the 
soil were everywhere closely allied with religious beliefs. 
It is true that the selection of a field to be tilled might be 
deemed of importance enough to demand the most careful 
consideration. It was often attended with many elaborate 
ceremonies, in which the priest, perhaps, took a prom- 
inent part, but the momentous question to be determined 
had less to do with the adaptation of the soil to the crop to 
be grown, of which they knew nothing, than with its 
acceptability to the supernatural beings who could make or 
destroy their harvest. To this end, with ritualistic observ- 
ances and sacrificial rites, they sought the approbation 
and co-operation of the spirits around and beneath, in 
earth and air, whose power they recognized and feared. 

How did savage man just emerging from barbarism 
first come to learn to put seeds in the ground and look for 
time to bring their fruition? To speculative minds it is 
an ever-recurring question of absorbing interest, and one 
to which evermore a satisfying answer with demonstra- 

1 " Zuni Myths," F. H. Cushing, in Thirteenth Annual Report of Bureau 
of American Ethnology. 

14 



PREPARING FOR THE CROP 15 

tive proof is denied. We accept it as an evident truth, 
as a commonplace fact, that the seed is the essential 
part necessary to reproduce the plant or vegetable, and 
that there could have been a period or condition in the 
evolution of man when it could have been otherwise, 
seems a far-away conclusion, and almost unthinkable. 
Nevertheless, it is apparent on little reflection that it must 
have been the pivotal point between civilization and bar- 
barism, the most vital one in the history of human progress 
and culture, when it first dawned upon the awakening 
intellect of man that the edible fruits and wild cereals 
which nourished him might be perpetuated in other seasons 
by means of germs contained within themselves. 

It is suggested that primitive man may have observed 
the renewal of vegetation from the seeds cast out on the 
kitchen middens and cleared places where refuse was acci- 
dentally thrown around their huts and dwellings, but why 
he should have connected this fact with the seeds more 
than with the shells and bones and other waste products 
is not apparent, and the problem is left still unexplained. 
The subject is most ably and interestingly discussed by 
Mr. Grant Allen, 2 who inclines to the belief that the only 
way in which primitive man first became acquainted with 
the elementary principles of the reproduction of vegetable 
organisms was from his custom of making propitiatory 
offerings at the burial places of the dead. Fearing the 
malevolent influence of the spirit or ghost of the dead man, 
they placed his body beneath a weight of earth, and sought 
to prevent his troublesome reappearance. Rolling a stone 
upon his tumulus added to the safety of the living by 
adding to the difficulty of escape from the confinement, 
and hence the origin of monumental commemoration of 
the dead, and the beginning of agriculture. Believing 

3 " Evolution of the Idea of God," chap. xiii. 



1 6 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

that whatever gave pleasure to the living man will be 
acceptable to his ghost, offerings of food and drink such 
as he was accustomed to are made at his burial place by 
his living associates, and the seeds of fruits and native 
cereals germinating and taking root in the newly disturbed 
soil of the tomb, reproduce them. The feared and con- 
ciliated spirit of the tomb, pleased with the attention 
manifested and generous contributions bestowed, repays 
their offerings many fold in like kind. Step by step it 
would be discovered that vegetation would thrive around, 
as well as upon, the actual grave if it was dug wide and 
deep enough, and slowly would develop the extended cul- 
tivated field, and possibly the belief connected therewith 
of the necessity of fresh ghosts to make the crop grow. 
" Hence," says Mr. Allen, " might gradually arise a habit 
of making a new grave annually, at the most favorable 
sowing time. . . . And this new grave would be the 
grave, not of a person who happened to die then and there 
accidentally, but of a deliberate victim, slain in order to 
provide a spirit of vegetation, an artificial god, and to 
make the corn grow with vigor and luxuriance." 3 

Whether this theory of the beginning of the cultivation 
of the soil is accepted or not, it is suggestive and stimulat- 
ing, and leads to the consideration of many customs known 
by abundant evidence to have been practiced by many 
civilized and semi-civilized peoples. Fear of disturbing 
the soil has been characteristic of savages. Spirits of the 
earth were regularly invoked as a religious rite among the 
most ancient civilizations. That the belief in earth spirits 
and demons and deities is primitive, and preceded even 
earth-burials, is probable. That the homeless, wander- 
ing ghosts of the dead were thought fit companions for 
the spirits of the under world is likely, and that regions 

8 " Evolution of the Idea of God," p. 282. 



PREPARING FOR THE CROP 17 

haunted by the latter were a desirable and safe refuge 
for the former, would follow. 

Savages believe that the disturbance of particular locali- 
ties is unusually dangerous. They are especially set apart 
for the dwellers invisible therein. Misfortune awaits 
those who encroach upon them, and the vengeance of the 
offended deities may be visited upon the whole tribe, mani- 
festing itself through pestilence, violent storms, and death, 
or subjugation by their enemies. In describing the natives 
of the Gold Coast, Major Ellis relates an incident which 
occurred in 1690. The English African Company made 
preparations for opening a mine on a hill which the inhabi- 
tants had assigned to the god Bobowissi for a dwelling- 
place. The natives protested, and forbade them to commit 
such an offense, and the English were finally compelled to 
suspend operation and abandon the scheme. 4 To even cut 
down the trees on a hallowed spot was a sacrilegious act, 
and the offended god was believed not infrequently to slay 
those who committed the outrage. In 1874, while Major 
Ellis was at Secondee, he found it necessary to have a tract 
of ground cleared up. He met with great opposition 
from the natives, who declared it was a locality sacred to 
a local god. He finally succeeded, but was prostrated 
with fever shortly afterwards, which was considered by 
the natives as a punishment inflicted upon him for disturb- 
ing the precincts of the god. 5 

In connection with the theory of burial as a primitive 
means of confining the dead man's ghost lest it do harm 
to the living, it is interesting to note that it was one of 
the laws of the Hebrews that if a man had committed a 
crime or sin meriting death, and had been put to death and 
hung upon a tree, the body must be buried during the day, 

4 " The Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast," A. B. Ellis, p. 23. 
B Ibid. p. 76. 



1 8 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

and not be suffered to remain all night upon the tree, " lest 
the land be defiled." 6 Parenthetically it is explained that 
he that is hanged is accursed of God, but is there not a sug- 
gestion that primarily the custom may have been asso- 
ciated with the fear of harm to the living from the depre- 
dations of the maliciously inclined ghost? The unburied 
corpse of the hanged man would be available for the use 
of magicians and sorcerers. The fields might be made 
barren, and the crops ruined. The demons of the locality 
might connive with the spirit of the dead, and wreak ven- 
geance upon those who had instigated the punishment of 
the criminal. 

Savages resorted to many devices for thwarting the mal- 
ice of spiritual beings whom they feared. With various 
ceremonies they sought to impart contentment to the de- 
parted, and prevent the spirit from repairing to the places 
of his former resort and distressing the survivors. The 
priest of Tahiti placed slips of plantain-leaf stalk on the 
breast and under the arms of the corpse to represent the 
father, wife, mother, or child of the deceased, and go with 
him to the spirit world, and not seek those left behind. 
For a like reason the stem of a banana tree was buried 
with a corpse by the Galelareese; and among the Okyon 
tribes, as Mary Kingsley relates, when a woman dies leav- 
ing a child over six months old, lest the spirit of the mother 
come back after the child, a bunch of plantains is put in 
with the body and bound up with the funeral binding 
clothes. 7 

If Mother Earth, providing a retreat and resting place 
for the dead, protected the living from harmful spirits, 
and generously yielded her annual abundance of fruits and 
grains and plants for the sustenance of man and beast, she 

"Deuteronomy, xxi, 23. 

7 " Travels in West Africa," p. 472. 



PREPARING FOR THE CROP 19 

was exacting in the attentions she demanded in return. 
She expected their propitiatory offerings and sacrifices be- 
fore responding to tlieir prayers. She had given her drops 
of blood, as the Khonds believed, to make the soft, muddy 
ground harden into firm earth suitable for pasturage and 
tillable fields, thus signifying that bloody rites were agree- 
able to her. 

In ancient legend, from the earth all living creatures 
sprang, generated by means of moisture and the quicken- 
ing heat of the sun. 

" Hence mighty mother of th' Immortal Gods, 
Of brutes, and men, is Earth full frequent feigned," 

wrote the ancient poet Lucretius. 8 In her lion-drawn car 
she traveled through the lands of the earth, sang the 
ancient bards of Greece. In Phrygia, 

" Since these the climes where first, as fame reports, 
The field was cultured and the harvest rose," 

at the festivals of the Immortal Mother, armed bands, 
says the poet, 

" Sport with fantastic chains, the measured dance 
Weaving infuriate, charmed with human blood." 8 

The historian Tacitus relates 10 that the tribes of the Suevi 
united in the worship of Hertha, the Earth Mother. 
Only the priest was permitted to touch her consecrated 
chariot, which stood in her sacred grove on an island in 
the ocean. At the annual festival of the goddess her 
chariot was drawn by yoked cows, and every place which 

8 " The Nature of Things," John Mason Good's translation, ii. 604. 
'"The Nature of Things," ii. 642. 



10 » 



Germania," chap. 40. 



20 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

she visited was a scene of joyous festivity. Satiated with 
the intercourse with mortals, the priest conducted her back 
to her sanctuary. Goddess and chariot received ablu- 
tion in a secret lake, and slaves who assisted were swal- 
lowed up in its waters. The awakening of new life was 
announced by the immersion of the image of the goddess, 
and peace and fertility were secured. The Nerthus of the 
North had been identified by the historian as the earth deity 
of his own classic land, the protectress of agriculture, 
whose home was in the earth, and whose worshipers 
touched the ground when invoking her. 

That human sacrifices have extensively prevailed in the 
worship of agricultural deities in former times, is shown 
by abundant evidence gathered from many sources. 
" The Golden Bough " of Mr. Frazer is especially val- 
uable as an exhaustive treatise upon these and kindred cere- 
monies, to which many references will be made in the fol- 
lowing pages. In discoursing of goddesses, Jacob Grimm 
says the common idea underlying them is that they are 
thought of chiefly as divine mothers who travel round and 
visit houses, and from whom the human race learns the arts 
of housekeeping and husbandry. Their labors bring peace 
and quiet in the land, though some of them take kindly 
to war, as, on the other hand, some of the gods favor 
peace and agriculture. 11 Heno, the Thunder of the 
Iroquois, who rode through the heavens on the clouds and 
split the forest trees with the thunderbolts which he 
hurled at his enemies, was the patron of husbandry, and 
was invoked at seedtime and harvest. It is suggested by 
Dr. Tylor that Huitzilopochtli, the terrible war god of the 
Aztecs, was originally a nature deity and that his functions 
as a war god were a later addition. 12 His three leading 

11 " Teutonic Mythology," p. 250. 
12 " Primitive Culture," ii. 305, 307. 



PREPARING FOR THE CROP 21 

festivals were connected with the seasons, the principal one 
being held at the time of the winter solstice. His reputed 
mother was the goddess of plants, who became impreg- 
nated through a bunch of flowers that fell from heaven. 
The December festival was emblematic of the season. 
The beginning of winter and the apparent death of vege- 
tation was typified in the killing of the god. The priest 
prepared his image by kneading various kinds of seeds 
with the blood of sacrificed children. After numerous 
purifyings, blood-lettings, fasts, and sacrifices of quails 
and human beings, the image was pierced with an arrow 
shot by a priest, the heart taken out and eaten by the king, 
the body cut into fragments and distributed, every man 
receiving a piece ; 13 and the annual ceremony of eating 
the body of the god was assurance of the renewal of life 
in vegetation and the yearly harvest. Tlaloc shared the 
honors with the war god in the Mexican pantheon, and 
ruled the rains and thunder and lightning. His home was 
in the midst of the clouds, and his festival was held on the 
mountain of earthly paradise. One took place about the 
time of the corn planting, to secure his good will and a 
favorable crop. 14 Babes and children were sacrificed in 
his honor, and, according to the Vatican Codex, the dead 
body of a boy sacrificed to him was put in the maize 
granaries or maize fields. 15 About the time of the winter 
solstice a series of festivities were held in honor of the 
goddess of white maize, Iztacaceenteotl. On this occa- 
sion the victims sacrificed were lepers or others suffering 
from contagious diseases. 16 The Pipiles, before begin- 
ning to plant, gathered in small bowls specimens of all 

""Native Races," iii. 315. 

14 " Rig Veda Americanus," D. G. Brinton, 24. 

15 " Native Races," ii. 332. 

16 Ibid. ii. 340. 



22 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

their seeds and, after performing certain rites with them 
before the image of a god, buried them in the ground, and 
burned copal and ulli over them. The idol was anointed 
with blood drawn from different parts of the body, and 
the land to be sowed was sprinkled with the blood of 
slain fowls. 17 

Sacrifices were offered by the natives of the Gold Coast 
of Africa at a festival held in December, in which human 
victims were slain at the plantations, that their blood 
might flow into the holes whence the yams had been 
taken. 18 In like manner the Algonquins of America 
deposit an offering in the earth for Mesukkummik Okwi, 
the Earth, the Great-Grandmother of all, after they have 
dug up the roots from which their medicines were made, 
for in her keeping were their healing plants, and the 
animals which fed and clothed them. 19 Indians of Guay- 
aquil sacrificed human blood and the hearts of men at the 
time of sowing their fields. The Pawnees burned a buf- 
falo or deer, or had human sacrifices annually at the sow- 
ing time, believing that the omission of the sacrifice would 
result in the failure of their crops. The victim might be 
a captive of either sex. Clad in costly attire, and fattened 
for the occasion, in the presence of the multitude they 
bound him to a cross and cleft his head with a tomahawk 
or shot him with arrows. Some authorities say that the 
squaws greased their hoes with pieces of the victim's 
flesh. An account of the sacrifice of a Sioux girl by the 
Pawnees, in 1837 or 1838, as described by Schoolcraft, 
De Smet, and Mr. E. James, is quoted by Mr. Frazer. 20 
She was burned for some time before a slow fire, and then 
shot to death with arrows. " While her flesh was still 

17 " Native Races," ii. 719. 

18 " Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast," A. B. Ellis, 230. 

10 " Primitive Culture," ii. 270. 

20 "The Golden Bough," ii. 238. 



PREPARING FOR THE CROP 23 

warm it was cut in small pieces from the bones, put in 
little baskets, and taken to a neighboring cornfield." The 
Mexicans sacrificed newborn babes when the maize 
was sown, older children when it sprouted, and old men 
when it was ripe. A queen of West Africa sacrificed a 
man and woman in the month of March. They were 
killed with spades and hoes-, and their bodies buried in the 
middle of the newly tilled field. At Lagos, in Guinea, a 
young girl was impaled alive, after the spring equinox, to 
secure good crops. A similar sacrifice was offered at 
Benin. The Marimos, a Bechuana tribe, forcibly take 
to the fields a human being and kill him among the wheat. 
His blood is coagulated in the sun, and burned with the 
sacred frontal bone and the brain, and the ashes are 
scattered on the ground. The Bagobos of Mindanao, 
one of the Philippine Islands, hew a slave to pieces in the 
forest before sowing their rice. The Gonds of India kid- 
naped Brahman boys, slew them with poisoned arrows, 
and sprinkled their blood over the fields. The Lhota 
Naga and the Angami, tribes of northeastern India, 
chopped off the heads, hands, and feet of people they met 
with, and stuck the severed extremities in their field to 
ensure a good crop. 21 

" Of all religions of the world," remarks Dr. Tylor, 22 
" perhaps that of the Khonds of Orissa gives the earth 
goddess her most remarkable place and function." Tari 
Pennu, created by the light god or sun god for his con- 
sort, became, in their cosmology, the mother of the other 
great gods, and in the functions ascribed to her, and in the 
rites with which she was propitiated, was exalted to the 
height of divinity. The suppression of the hideous sac- 
rifices with which she was honored is a matter of recent 



21 "The Golden Bough," ii. 238-240. 
22 " Primitive Culture," ii. 270, 



24 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

Indian history. From the British officers engaged in put- 
ting them down comes our knowledge of them. Professor 
Frazer says it is " the best known case of human sacrifices 
offered to ensure good crops." They were also believed 
to give immunity from disease and from accidents, and 
were especially necessary in the cultivation of turmeric, as 
without the shedding of blood it would not have a deep 
red color. The special victims for the purpose were 
known as Meriahs, and were descendants of other Meriahs, 
or purchased for that purpose. Fathers in distress often 
sold their children for victims, believing it was most hon- 
orable — that they were conferring a blessing upon mankind 
and securing the beatification of their souls. The Khond 
father who parted with his daughter that she might be- 
come a Meriah, was comforted with the belief that she 
died that all the world might live. The Meriah was often 
kept for years before the sacrifice, and was looked upon as 
a consecrated person. On reaching manhood, the Meriah 
youth was given a wife, also a Meriah, and their offspring 
were reared to be future victims. The sacrifices to the 
goddess were made by tribes or villages, and so arranged 
that each head of a family secured a shred or portion of 
the body of the victim for his fields at least once a year, 
and about the time when his field was to be planted. 
Several days were given up to revelry and debauchery as 
the time for the slaying of the Meriah approached. He 
was anointed with oil, ghee, and turmeric, and adorned 
with flowers. The victim sometimes was put to death slowly 
by fire, or he might be pressed to death between strong 
planks, or be strangulated by having his neck inserted in 
the cleft of a split green tree. Again, he was dragged 
along the fields, followed by the crowd, who hacked the 
flesh from his body till he died, or was fastened to the 
proboscis of a wooden elephant, which revolved on a post, 



PREPARING FOR THE CROP 25 

and as it whirled the people cut the flesh from the victim, 
the elephant being supposed to represent the earth goddess 
herself, Major Campbell found in some villages as many 
as fourteen of these wooden elephants, which had been used 
at sacrifices. In some districts the post to which the victim 
was bound bore the effigy of a peacock, as the goddess 
was represented. 23 The flesh was divided into two por- 
tions by the priest. One was buried in a hole in the ground 
as an offering to the earth goddess, which the priest 
deposited with his back turned, and without looking. 
Each man added a little earth, and the priest poured water 
on the spot. The other portion was divided among the 
people, the head of each family receiving a share, which 
he rolled in leaves and buried in his field, placing it in the 
earth behind his back, without looking. Head, bowels, 
and bones were burned with a sheep the next morning, 
and the ashes scattered over the fields, or sometimes they 
were buried without being burnt. 24 

After the suppression of human sacrifices in India, 
inferior animals were substituted for them. A goat was 
sometimes used, as in Chinna Kimedy, and the sacrifice of 
a buffalo is described by Mr. Gomme. 25 The head was 
struck off at a blow, and placed in front of the shrine of 
the village goddess, around which was placed a collection 
of vessels containing different cereals, and a heap of mixed 
grains, with a drill plow in the center. The carcass of the 
animal was cut into small pieces, and each cultivator was 
given a portion for his field, which was buried with a part 
of the grain from the heap. The head of the buffalo was 
buried before a little temple sacred to the goddess of 
boundaries. 

23 " The Golden Bough," ii. 238-244, note Z. 

24 Ibid. ii. 245. 

25 "Village Communities," p. 112. 



26 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

In the sacrifice of effigies and other customs in modern 
Europe, Mr. Allen finds indications of earlier sacrificial 
rites of the older nations. Sometimes the effigies are 
burned and thrown into the river, or buried piecemeal, or, 
as in Silesian Austria, a struggle takes place for frag- 
ments of the effigy while it is burning, when each one who 
secures a fragment of the figure ties it to a branch of the 
largest tree in his garden, or buries it in his field, believing 
it will make his crops grow better. Portions of a sheaf 
of corn are buried in the field as fertilizers. In the Hartz 
Mountains a living man is laid on a baking trough and 
carried with dirges, to a grave, and, at the last moment, a 
glass of brandy is substituted- for him. In a Russian cere- 
mony, an old man carries a coffin, containing a figure known 
as Yarilo, out of the town into an open field, and buries it 
while the women chant dirges and weep and wail. 26 Cere- 
monies in the South Sea Islands, used in reclaiming lands 
recovered after having been taken from them by invasion, 
when pigs and plantains are placed upon the altars of the 
temples, newly ornamented with branches of the sacred 
miro and the yellow leaves of the cocoanut-tree, suggest 
earlier and more savage rites. Lands acquired by conquest 
were rendered habitable and fertile by like formalities. 

It is the history of all advancement from barbarism to 
civilization that, one by one, the more savage customs 
have been gradually relieved of their more repulsive 
features, and so modified as to be acceptable to more 
enlightened generations. With increasing population, the 
excessive burden of costly sacrificial rites has always been 
a considerable factor in effecting their modification, though 
in their less offensive forms they continue to survive long 
after they cease to have any special significance, and often 
they degenerate into sports and pastimes for the amusement 

26 " Evolution of the Idea of God," p. 294. 



PREPARING FOR THE CROP 27 

of the populace, in the enjoyment of which their origin is 
entirely lost sight of, their former meaning forgotten, and 
new interpretations of their purposes are made to har- 
monize with the sentiment of the period. 

In the older thought, as we have seen, man looked back- 
ward to a distant past, when by divine instruction the way 
was pointed out for the cultivation of specific products, 
or to a time when the matured fruits fell perfected from 
the hands of beneficent deities. In the revolution wrought 
by the discovery that all forms of life, as we know them, 
including man himself, are the outcome of growth and 
development by slow processes through all the ages past, 
the perspective of our intellectual vision is extended so 
that we perceive that finalities once acceptable and sat- 
isfying are but the nearer confines of limitless realms 
untraversed that lie beyond. 

We do not know how primitive man, as we conceive of 
him, may have been led to know things, or to do things 
familiar to us. How long it had been a hereditary custom 
to sacrifice human beings annually and put fragments of 
their flesh in the fields to make sure of a crop, when the 
English officers wrote of the tribes of India, we do not 
know. Their fathers did it before them, and they be- 
lieved it was an essential ceremony. Other explanation 
would hardly be necessary, and quite likely would not be 
attempted. If a magical rite, it was no less vital and 
imperative. The gods that their fathers had created were 
likened after themselves. If the earth goddess required 
at their hands blood and flesh for food, the taste of it was 
not wholly obliterated from their own memories. The 
natives of New Guinea, who believed that yams sprang 
from the buried bodies of murdered men, had most likely 
seen them taken from the ground where slain men had been 
laid, or they accepted the traditions of their ancestors who 



28 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

had. The Fijians might easily assume a similar origin for 
them if it be a fact, as travelers report, that yam plants 
spring up from the heaps of yams offered to ancestral 
spirits in the sacred stone enclosure or temenos, and grow 
luxuriantly. 27 

In the course of human progress, as some knowledge 
was acquired of fertilization, traditional customs would 
gradually disappear, but many of them would undoubtedly 
continue in modified forms for a long period, as to-day 
among the most enlightened races, where the science of 
cultivation is most advanced, many old beliefs linger, and 
practices are still observed in agricultural operations by 
people who can give no rational explanation of them, but 
still have faith in them. Homer relates that King Laertes 
enriched the knolls of his vineyard by strewing them with 
fallen leaves, yet they continued to burn the hallowed parts 
to the everlasting gods when they feasted on the fattened 
boars. 28 

If we try to put ourselves in the place of men in some 
bygone epoch, and divine the ways which led to certain 
results, we can only partially succeed, for the effects of our 
environments are inseparable from our intellectual proc- 
esses. We know that by the chemical action of certain 
elements brought in contact with the soil, its productiveness 
is increased, but if we ask how man in the beginning 
gained his first insight into the mysteries of fertilization, it 
is almost as difficult to answer as it is to say how he first 
came to know that seeds buried in the earth at fitting times 
would germinate and reproduce the plant and fruit. 

Legend attributes to kings and gods the introduction of 
fertilizers. Pliny says Augeas was the first king among 
the Greeks to dung the fields, and Hercules divulged the 

""Evolution of the Idea of God," 281. 
18 Odyssey, xi. 193; xiv. 450. 



PREPARING FOR THE CROP 29 

practice among the Italians. It was impious in the golden 
reign of Saturn to disturb the soil, but in later tradition, 
to the god was added the name Stercutius, as a title in 
memory of his being the first to lay dung upon lands to 
make them fertile, in allusion to which, an English author 
wrote : 

" The Romans, ever counted superstitious, 
Adored with high titles of divinity, 
. . . the Lord Stercutius." 29 

If the sacred food-offerings to ancestral ghosts and 
earth deities led the way to the planting of seeds in the 
earth, did similar offerings of the flesh of men and beasts, 
and of ordure and urine, to the gods of the fields, point 
the way to fertilization? Vegetation sprang up around 
the tombs of the buried dead, and the unburied enemies 
of the gods rotted in the fields and became as dung. 30 

Dungy gods, wood and stone, were not unknown to the 
Israelites. 31 At the feast of Berecintha, the mother of 
the gods, one of the names of Cybele, or Rhea, the primal 
earth goddess, Roman matrons sprinkled her image with 
urine. One of the names of a Mexican goddess signified 
" the eater of filthy things." The ordure of cows has a 
prominent part in the religious ceremonies of Hindus and 
Parsis. The dung of bullocks was used as a sin-offering 
by the Hebrews. Whatever had once been connected 
with, or formed part of, man or beast, served as a substi- 
tute for the animal or person. The Israelites buried their 
excrements to keep them away from the magicians, 32 and 
it was a common belief in the Middle Ages that they were 

29 Harrington's "Ajax," quoted in Bourke's " Scatalogic Rites," 129. 
80 2 Kings ix. 37 ; Jeremiah viii. 2 ; xvi. 4. 
31 Cruden's Concordance, title " Dungy." 

32 " Scatalogic Rites," 129; "Native Races," iii. 380; "Primitive Cul- 
ture," ii. 438; ExoduS xxix. 14; Lev. iv. n ; xvi. 27; Deut. xxiii. 13. 



30 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

a powerful antidote to witchcraft, and Luther thought the 
devil hated nothing more than human ordure. 

Whether animism as defined by Tylor is the basis of 
primitive religions, or magic, as suggested by Frazer, 33 is 
the forerunner of them, there seems but little reason to 
doubt that the ceremonial offerings connected with early 
religious beliefs led the way to a knowledge of rational 
methods of fertilization. 

33 " Primitive Culture," i. 426 ; " The Golden Bough," i. 70. 



CHAPTER III 

PLOWING 

" Dull honest plowman to manure the field 
Strong Taurus bears, by him the grounds are tilled ; 
No gaudy things he breeds, no prize for worth, 
But blesseth earth, and brings her labor forth; 
He taketh the yoke, nor doth the plow disdain, 
And teaches farmers to manure the plain ; 
He's their example, when he bears the sun 
In his bright horns, the noble toil's begun, 
The useful plowshare he retrieves from rust, 
Nor lives at ease, and wants his strength in dust." 1 

If it be true, as Grant Allen conjectures, that agriculture 
originated in primitive burial customs, and the first garden- 
patch was a tomb, then the crude implement, whatever it 
may have been, with which some savage scooped a shallow 
grave to receive his fallen kinsman or slain foe, was the 
first plow. Following the Biblical story, the poet Cowley 
wrote : " The three first men in the world were a gar- 
dener, a plowman, and a grazier; and if any man object 
that the second of these was a murderer, I desire he would 
consider that as soon as he was so, he quitted our profes- 
sion and turned builder." 2 

In all primitive agricultural operations the first in order 
and importance is the breaking up of the soil. In trac- 
ing the evolution of the plow it is found to have been 
gradually developed from the hoe, and that, as Professor 
Tylor thinks, from the pick or hatchet. Iron plowshares 

1 Manilius, English translation of 1697, book iv. 
2 " Essay on Agriculture." 

31 



32 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

are known to have been in use many centuries before the 
Christian Era. The Hebrew prophets looked forward to 
the last days when the reign of peace should begin among 
the nations of the earth, and they should beat their swords 
into plowshares, 3 or roused for action the mighty men of 
war, exhorting them to beat their plowshares into swords 
and their pruninghooks into spears. 4 

Sharpened stakes and crooked limbs of trees were" the 
earliest substitutes for the plow in historical times, and 
their use has been common among the nations. The 
ancient Egyptian plow was of wood, and was sometimes 
but a pointed stick which was forced into the ground as 
it was drawn forward. The early Greeks used the trunk 
of a small tree with two branches opposite each other, one 
forming the share and the other the handle, while the 
trunk formed the pole or beam. The Romans improved 
the plow, adding the coulter and moldboard, and some- 
times attaching a wheel to the beam to prevent the share 
from going too far into the ground. The Peruvians 
had neither the iron plowshare nor animals for draught, 
but they used a strong, sharp-pointed stake traversed by a 
horizontal piece ten to twelve inches from the point, on 
which the plowman might set his foot and force it into the 
ground. Six or eight strong men were attached to the 
plow by ropes, and dragged it along, keeping time as they 
moved, and chanting national songs. 5 The annals of 
early races show a widespread hostility to the use of iron 
in connection with agriculture as well as in the erection of 
buildings and bridges. Some of this feeling may be 
traced to the natural antipathy towards things newly intro- 
duced, and if the introduction of them is followed by dis- 

8 Isaiah ii. 4; Micah iv. 3. 

*Joel iii. 10. 

Prescott's "Conquest of Peru," i. 139. 



PLOWING 33 

astrous consequences the impression prevails that their use 
is objectionable to the higher powers. 
When iron plowshares were first introduced into Poland 
a succession of bad seasons followed, which were attrib- 
uted to the evil effects of the contact of the iron with the 
earth. They were discarded and the old wooden ones 
were again resorted to. The Baduwis of Java, who live 
by husbandry, will use no iron tool in tilling their fields. 6 
Long after iron was brought into common use, it was still 
considered as unsafe for use in religious ceremonies. It 
must not be used in constructing the sacred utensils of tem- 
ples, or even in the temples themselves, as in the case of 
the Hebrews. 7 As in the reconstruction of religious be- 
liefs, deities at one time occupying the highest places in the 
pantheon have at another period come to be considered as 
powers of evil, we may conclude that the disfavor with 
which iron was believed to be held by the gods was the 
probable reason of its extensive use as a protection against 
magic and evil spirits, and as a charm against ghosts. 

One of the early church fathers, Justin Martyr, in the 
second century, attributed the productiveness of the earth 
after being tilled with a spade to the shape of the imple- 
ment, because it was in the form of a cross. At the 
time of the American Revolution, however, the farmers of 
Massachusetts still plowed their fields with the wooden 
bull-plows. 8 When iron for plows was first introduced 
into America, about 1797, the farmers were prejudiced 
against its use, believing that the iron poisoned the land, 
and that it was unfavorable to the growth of the crops. 

With Bertha, the goddess of the ancient Germans, who 
promoted agriculture and navigation among men, the plow 

6 "The Golden Bough," i. 348. 

7 1 Kings vi. 7. 

8 McMaster's "History of The American People," i. 18. 



34 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

was the sacred implement from which there fell chips of 
gold. It was next to the spindle in sanctity with her, who 
was, as Moncure Conway says, " the beautiful angel of 
the Earth, who converts nomads into cultivators of the 
ground, wildernesses into gardens, tents into homes." 9 

The old poet of the Greeks, to whom " fertile Ascra " 
gave birth some seven centuries before the Christian Era, 
pleasantly discourses in verse to his countrymen upon the 
subject under consideration in this chapter. His advice 
was to get first of all a house and a woman and a plowing 
ox, and to begin plowing when the Pleiads set, not forget- 
ting to make vows to " Jove infernal and chaste Demeter " 
first, as he takes in hand the goad at the extremity of the 
plow-tail, and touches the back of the oxen dragging the 
oaken peg of the pole with the leathern strap. Mountain 
and field should be carefully searched for the best material 
for constructing the plow. " Provide yourself," says he, 
" a share-beam of oak, a plow-tail of ilex-oak; for this is 
stoutest for steers to plow; and a pair of males, steers 
nine years old, having just the mean of age, which are best 
for working. . . . And along with these let a lusty 
plowman of forty years follow, having made a meal on a 
loaf four-squared, divided into eight morsels, who, mind- 
ing his business will cut the furrows straight, no longer 
peering round among his fellows, but having his heart in 
his work . . . for a younger man gapes like one dis- 
traught after his fellows. Mark, too, when from high 
out of the clouds you shall have heard the voice of the crane 
uttering its yearly cry, which, both brings the signal for 
plowing, and points the season of rainy weather, but gnaws 
the heart of a man that hath no oxen." 10 If perchance the 
proper season for breaking the earth be not observed, the 

" Demonology and Devil Lore," i. 288. 

10 " Works and Days," translation of J. Banks, 440-450. 



PLOWING 35 

crop of the laggard shall not fail, if Jove permit, that when 
the cuckoo sings first in the oak foliage, delighting mor- 
tals, rain without ceasing shall continue three days, neither 
overtopping the ox's hoofprint nor falling short of it. 

The poet Virgil has likewise embalmed in verses a de- 
scription of the plow used by his countrymen, which has 
occasioned much diversity of opinion among his inter- 
preters. One of his editors remarks that if any poet of 
the present day were to undertake a description of a plow 
in the same number of lines, the terms which he employed 
would not be intelligible out of his own province or county 
without an engraving. 11 " The elm while yet quite young 
in the woods," says the poet, " is bent by strong force, and 
trained to grow into the shape of a plow-beam, and re- 
ceives the form of a crooked plow. To the end of this 
a pole as much as eight feet long, two earth-boards, and 
share-beams with double back are fitted. Also a light 
lime-tree is cut down betimes for the yoke, and a tall beech 
will make a handle, to turn the bottom of the plow from 
behind; the wood hung up in the chimney is seasoned by 
smoke." 12 In Roman tradition it was Ceres that first 
introduced the use of the plow, on which account the people 
are enjoined to observe the annual sacrifices to her, " who 
compelled the bulls first to bend their necks to the yoke." 
It was then for the first time the upturned earth saw the 
light of the sun. 13 Though Hesiod fixes the time for the 
beginning of the plowing at the setting of the seven sis- 
ters, Theocritus sings of the oxen of the Ciannes wearing 
bright the plowshare at the rising of the daughters of 
Atlas. 14 Virgil specifically instructs the husbandman to 

11 See Works of Virgil edited by B. A. Gould, " Georgics," i. 160, for 
discussion of the subject. 

"English Translation of Lonsdale and Lee, "Georgics," i. 168-175. 

13 Ovid, " Fasti," iv. 400. 

14 Idyl xiii. 



36 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

observe. the signs in the heavens according to the crop he 
desires to produce. The time to bend to the plows and 
work the steers, if he is fitting the land for flax and barley 
and the sacred poppy, is when the " Balance has equalized 
hours of day and sleep, and halves the world exactly 'twixt 
light and shade." When Taurus ushers in the year with 
his gilded horns and Sirius sets facing the threatening bull, 
is the time for beans. For wheat and spelt, the Pleiades 
should hide themselves from your eyes with the dawn. 
Many have begun before Maia sets, but the desired crop 
has baffled them with empty ears. 15 

Many and varied are the romances and tales of the 
mythical ages associated with the plowman and his work, 
which have been collected and preserved in the annals 
and literature of peoples. In the classical story of the 
Argonauts, which is supposed to have been formulated 
about the period of Hesiod, Jason, their leader, yokes to a 
plow the brawny-necked wild bulls of Actes, and sowing 
the field with dragons' teeth, produces a crop of warriors : 

" With serpents' teeth the fertile furrows sows ; 
The glebe fermenting with enchanted juice, 
Makes the snakes' teeth a human crop produce." 18 

Legends of the Norsemen tell of horses of the sea, 
sometimes of a dapple-gray, and at others black, which were 
sometimes cunningly bridled and fastened to their plows. 
A clever man at Morland is said to have plowed all his 
land in this way, but the bridle becoming loosened, the 
team darted like fire into the sea, drawing the harrow with 
them. In another tale a huge black horse drew both plow 
and plowman over the .cliff. In the days of giants, we 
read of them so large that one of them could throw a plow- 

15 " Georgics," i. 210-230. 

16 Note to Canto ii. " Paradise," Longfellow's " Dante." 



PLOWING 37 

share the whole length of the furrow with but little effort. 
Claiming the woodlands as their own domain, they resented 
the approach of trespassers upon them, and sometimes took 
revenge upon the husbandman for it. The Esthonians tell 
of a giant's son who furrowed up grassy lands with a 
wooden plow, and not a blade grew on them afterwards. 
Will-o'-the-wisps were accounted the unblessed spirits of 
men who had plowed their neighbors' lands, and unright- 
eous land surveyors with long, fiery poles were seen hover- 
ing up and down the furrows as if remeasuring the land 
which they wrongly measured. 17 

In India there are certain days when plowing is unlaw- 
ful. Mother Earth is supposed to sleep six days in every 
month, and upon such days she refuses to be disturbed in 
her slumbers. So in England, in North Riding of York- 
shire, it was considered unwise to disturb the earth with 
spade or plow upon Good Friday, and potatoes planted 
failed to come up, but in Devonshire it was considered a 
good day for sowing peas, and for grafting. 18 It was a rule 
of the Parsis that if a dog had died on a piece of ground, 
the field must lie fallow for a year. It was then examined 
to see if any bones, hair, flesh, dung, or blood was there. 19 

The bewitchment of the evil eye was one of the terrors 
from which the primitive agriculturist guarded himself and 
his cattle and his team in various ways. In the peasant 
lore of Ireland it is told that a plowman, seeing a man with 
whom he wished to converse standing at the end of his 
furrow, took pains to turn his horses round so that their 
tails would be towards the man, as then they were consid- 
ered safe from any possible bewitchment. 20 

17 Grimm's "Teutonic Mythology," 490, 553, 918. 

18 " Folk-Lore in the Northern Counties of England," William Hender- 
son, 81. 

19 Bourke's " Scatalogic Rites," 262. 

20 " Gaelic Ireland," Daniel Deeny, 48. 



38 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

The formal inauguration of the plowing season by 
special ceremonies is a custom which is very ancient, and 
which is still observed in some parts of the earth. The 
year was opened with agricultural ceremonies by the Per- 
sians and the Chinese. The Athenians celebrated three 
sacred plowings, according to Plutarch, who thinks the 
Grecian plowing was a civil institution at first, to which was 
afterwards attached a mystical meaning. The Chinese 
plowing took place on the first day of their solar new year. 
Formerly the son of heaven offered a sacrifice in the spring 
to ward off all calamities, says Mr. Simcox, but " one 
expensive religious rite after another was eliminated at the 
suggestion of rationalistic sovereigns or sages, until finally 
nothing was left but the imperial act of homage to 
heaven and earth and agriculture in the ceremonial 
plowing." 21 

The Siamese observe a rite designated as " Raakna," 
about the middle of May, which is preliminary to the 
spring plowing. It is not considered proper to plow the 
fields and begin the cultivation of them until after this cere- 
mony takes place. The court astrologers determine the 
appropriate time for it. Oh the day designated, the Min- 
■ister of Agriculture, who is always a prince, or a noble- 
man of high rank, goes with a procession to a piece of 
ground some distance from the city walls. Contributions 
are made to him, who for that days acts as the proxy of the 
King. Levies upon the goods of shopkeepers exposed for 
sale along the route of the procession were forcibly made 
in older times. On reaching the field upon which the 
festivities are to take place, a new plow with a pair of 
fine buffaloes yoked to it is found in readiness. Buffaloes 
and plow are gayly decorated with flowers and leaves. 
The minister guides the plow over the fields and is closely 

21 " Primitive Civilizations," E. J. Simcox, ii. 37. 



PLOWING 39 

watched by the spectators, who are specially interested in 
the length and folds of the silk of his lower garment, be- 
cause the prosperity of the season, and its characteristics, 
whether wet or dry, are to be predicted from these as he 
follows the implement across the fields. If the robe rises 
above the knee of the royal representative, disastrous rains 
are indicated, while if it falls to the ankle a scarcity of 
moisture is expected. A prosperous season will follow if 
the folds of the robe reach midway from the knee to the 
ankle. After a proper number of furrows are plowed, old 
women strew grain of different kinds in them, and the bulls, 
relieved of their yokes, feed upon it, and again the omens 
are closely observed by the crowd, for that grain upon 
which the animals feed most freely will be scarce the next 
harvest, and that which they refuse will be reaped in 
abundance. The minister, accompanied by soldiers and 
musicians, leads the people homewards, and after this 
formal opening of the season, all are free to begin the till- 
age of their fields. 22 

In the northwestern provinces of India the cultivator 
employs the Pundit to select an auspicious hour for the 
commencement of plowing. Great secrecy is observed. 
In Mirzapur the time fixed is in the night, in other places 
at daybreak. The officiating Pundit goes to an oblong or 
square field, taking a brass drinking vessel and a branch 
of the sacred mango tree, which is efficacious in scaring evil 
spirits which may haunt the fields, or be offended at their 
disturbance. Prithivi, the broad world, and Sesha Naga, 
the great snake which supports the world, are supposed to 
be propitiated and reconciled by this ceremony. By some 
observations which he makes the Pundit satisfies himself 
as to the direction in which the great snake is lying, for the 
snake occasionally moves about a little to ease himself of 

M "The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe," Ernest Young, zn. 



4 o MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

the great burden of the broad world which he carries. 
The Pundit marks off an imaginary line, five (a lucky 
number) clods of earth are thrown up, and water is 
sprinkled in the trench five times with the sacred mango 
bush, to ensure productiveness by virtue of the sympa- 
thetic magic which is established. Caution must be ob- 
served lest the charm be broken and the prospective for- 
tune be imperiled, and seclusion is considered imperative 
during the following day, during which no salt must be 
eaten, and no money or grain or fire given away. Vil- 
lagers go to the fields on the first day of plowing in 
Rajputana, carrying an earthen pot colored with turmeric, 
and filled with millet. This is one of the sacred colors of 
which evil spirits are supposed to be afraid. Looking to 
the north, the home of the gods, they make obeisance to 
the earth, then a selected man plows five furrows. His 
hands and the bullocks' hoofs are rubbed with henna, 
which is probably an additional precaution against the bad 
spirits, or possibly disastrous results to the crops might 
follow the contact of the extremities with the soil unpro- 
tected by the henna. Among the Karnas, before begin- 
ning the plowing, the Baiga makes a burnt offering of 
butter and molasses in his own field, and then sacrifices in 
the same way at the village shrine. 23 

Grimm describes a ceremony among the ancient Ger- 
mans which took place before the plowing. They cut 
sods from the four corners of the field. They laid on the 
sods oil, honey, and barm, milk of each sort of cattle, some 
of every kind of tree except oak and beech, and of all 
name-known herbs save burs, and sprinkled them with 
holy water. The four turfs were then carried to the 
church, and the green side turned toward the altar. Four 

23 " Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India," William Crooke, 370, 
37i- 



PLOWING 41 

masses were said over them, and they were returned to 
their places in the field before sunset. Then the spells 
were spoken, and unknown seed bought of beggar men and 
placed on the plow, another spell was recited, and the first 
furrow plowed, with a " Hail Earth, mother of men," etc. 
Out of meal of every kind a large loaf was kneaded with 
milk and baked and laid under the first furrow, and another 
spell was spoken. Grimm finds vestiges of this ancient 
rite preserved in later ordinances like the following: 

When the plower cometh to an end of the furrow, there shall he find 
a pot of honey, and at the other end a pot of milk, wherewith to refresh 
him lest he faint. 

At the plowing shall be brought a loaf so great that one may stick it 
on the axle of the plow-wheel, and therewith plow a furrow; if the loaf 
do break when the furrow is done, and the plower have not another wheel 
ready to put in its place, then shall he smart (pay a fine) ; if the bread 
break ere the furrow be finished, let him fare home unfined. 

Or the regulation was sometimes like this : 

If the plower break a wheel, he shall for pennance provide a loaf 
as large round as the plow-wheel, and baken of every grain that the plow 
doth win; he shall so softly drive the plow, that a finch can feed her 
young on the wheel. 

"What is the drift of these curious regulations?" 
asks Grimm. " Was ever plowman fed on milk and 
honey? Were loaves and cakes ever stuck on the axle to 
cut the first furrow? They are surely the ancient sacri- 
ficial loaves," says he, " which, with milk and honey poured 
over them were laid in the furrow, and distributed to the 
plowmen, which even the birds were allowed to peck at." 24 

A wizard performed a preliminary magical ceremony 
when the Lithuanian or Prussian farmer went out to begin 
his plowing for the season. The wizard, seizing a mug 
of beer with his teeth, and drinking it, threw the cup over 

84 "Teutonic Mythology," 1239, 1240. 



42 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

his head to signify the height to which the crop was likely 
to grow, or that it was desirable that it should. Someone 
must be. placed behind the magician to catch the cup lest 
it should fall to the ground, for if it came in contact with 
the earth the charm would be broken and the crop would 
be likely to lie flat upon the ground. 25 

In the northeast of Scotland, when the plow was first 
put into the ground in the spring to prepare the soil for 
the seed, bread and cheese with ale and whisky were car- 
ried to the field and partaken of by the household, and a 
piece of bread and cheese were put in the plow and other 
pieces cast into the field to " feed the craws," as it was 
said. 26 

Feeding the crows was probably a later attempt to ac- 
count for an older sacrificial custom whose primary mean- 
ing was forgotten. Loaves and cakes made on Yule-eve 
by the Swedish peasants were dried and preserved till the 
spring plowing, when they were grated and mixed with 
the seed corn and a portion given to the plow horses and 
another to the men who held the plow. 27 

In the frolics and mimic sports of the fifteenth and six- 
teenth centuries in England and on the continent of 
Europe, these ceremoinal customs connected with plowing 
and once seriously regarded of great import, survived in a 
degenerate form. They were particularly associated with 
the closing festivities of the Christmas holidays, the fol- 
lowing Monday being known as Plow-Monday. Our 
knowledge of them is gathered from the, old chroniclers 
and from allusions to them in the literary publications of 
the period. Plow-Monday was the day when, according 
to popular tradition, the attention of the farmer was 

25 "The Golden Bough," iii. 467. 

39 " Folk-Lore of North East Scotland," Rev. Walter Gregor, 160. 

2 ' " Teutonic Mythology," 1240. 



PLOWING 43 

turned to preparation for his work for the coming season. 
It was time for the formal opening of the plowing season. 
Upon that day it was customary for men and maidens clad 
in fantastic attire, dragging a plow with them, to march 
from house to house, performing various antics and beg- 
ging money for the expenses of their festivities, or for 
food and drink. A writer in the Gentleman' s Magazine 
in 1762, says: " On this day the young men yoke them- 
selves and draw a plow about with music, and orte or two 
persons, in antic dresses, like Jack-Puddings, go from 
house to house to gather money to drink. If you refuse 
them they plow up your dunghill. We call them here (in 
Derbyshire) the plow bullocks." Thomas Tusser, author 
of " Five Hundred Points of Husbandry," says of the day: 

" Plow-Monday, next after that Twelf-tide is past, 
Bids out with the plow, the worst husband is last; 
If plowman get hatchet, or whip to the skreene, 
Maids loseth their cocke, if no water be seen." 

In a later work the last lines of the verse have this ex- 
planation: In the morning of that day men and maids vie 
with each other in rising early to prepare for the day. If 
the plowman gets his whip, plow-staff, hatchet, or any- 
thing needed in the field, and reaches the fireside before the 
maid gets her kettle on, then the maid loseth her Shrove- 
tide cock, and it wholly belongs to the men. 28 The draw- 
ing of the plow was undoubtedly originally of a religious 
character, and was intended to promote thriving crops and 
a fruitful season. Dances and bonfires sometimes were 
connected with it, or a fire was kindled on the plow and it 
was drawn about while burning until finally consumed by 
the flames. Various entries in old church records indicate 
the religious nature of the festival at one time. Silver 

28 Brand, 275. 



44 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

plows were hung in the churches and demanded as dues 
in the Middle Ages. 29 In the churchwarden's accounts of 
St. Margaret's, Westminster, for 1494, is entered, " Item 
of the Brotherhood of Rynsyvale for the Plow-gere four 
shillings." In those of Heybridge near Maiden, Essex, in 
1552, is written, "Item receyved of the gadryng of the 
White Plowe is. 3d." An extract from the church- 
warden's accounts of Wigtoft, Lincolnshire, 1575, says, 
" Receid of Wyllm Clarke & John Waytt, of ye plougad- 
rin if. os. od." A note accompanying the last item says, 
" why this was applied to the use of the church, I cannot 
say. There is a custom in this neighborhood of the plow- 
men parading on Plow-Monday; but what little they col- 
lect is applied wholly to feasting themselves." This would 
appear to have been added at a later time when the asso- 
ciation of the church with the festival had been discon- 
tinued. In the records of the Church of Holbeche of 
things sold by the churchwardens to Wm. Davy is the 
" Sygne whereon the Plowghe did stond." Brand quotes 
from Hutchinson's " History of Northumberland " the 
statement that he had seen twenty men in the yoke of one 
plow. 30 If not requited at any house where they ap- 
peared they drew the plow through the pavement and 
raised the ground of the front in furrows. The term 
" White Plow " came from the fact of the habit of the gal- 
lant young men who took part in the sport of drawing it in 
their shirts without coat or waistcoat. Another similar cere- 
mony was the dragging of a plow with dancers and music 
about the beginning of Lent, which was known as the Fool 
Plow in the north of England. The Fool Plow was also 
used on the continent after the service of Ash Wednesday. 
There was a similar performance also after scattering the 

w Grimm, 265, note. 
"Brand's "Antiquities," 274. 



Plowing 45 

ashes on that day in England, as may be inferred from the 
reference to it by Barnaby Googe's translation of 
" Naogeorgus ": 

" In some places all the youthful flocke, with minstrels doe repaire, 
And out of every house they plucke the girles and maydens faire, 
And them to plow they straightways put, with whip one doth them hit, 
Another holds the plow in hande; the Minstrell here doth sit 
Amidde the same, and drunken sondes with gaping mouth, he sings, 
Wliome followeth one that sowes out sande, or ashes fondly flings. 
When thus they through the strectes have plaide, the man that 

guidclh all, 
Doth drive both plow and maydens through some ponde or river small; 
And dabbled all with durt, and wringing wettc as they may bee, 
To supper callcs, and after that to daunsing lustilee." 

In a literary work in the latter part of the fifteenth cen- 
tury the practice is condemned of " ledyng of the Ploughc 
aboutc the Fire as for gode begynnyng of the yere that 
they shulde fare the better alle the yere followyng." :!1 
The custom was forbidden by the Town Council of Ulm 
in 1530 in an edict dated St. Nicholas Eve: " Item, there 
shall none, by day nor night, trick or disguise him, nor put 
on any carnival raiment, moreover, shall keep him from 
the going about of the plow, and with ships, on pain of I 
gulden." :<2 Grimm says there was a custom on the Rhine 
for the young men to gather all the dance maidens and put 
them in a plow, and draw their piper, who sitteth on the 
plow piping, into the water. In some places evil-minded 
lads on Shrove Tuesday drove a plow about, yoking it to 
such damsels as would not pay a ransom, while others 
went behind them sprinkling them with chopped straw 
and sawdust. By acts of Parliament forbidding the prac- 
tice it is proved that in the less civilized portions of Ireland 
there existed, several centuries ago, the custom of fastening 

11 Brand, 273. 
° 3 Grimm, 263. 



46 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

plows to the tails of horses. The following from a satire 
written of Ireland in the eighteenth century may be an 
allusion to the practice: 

" The Western isle renowned for bogs, 
For tories and for great wolf-dogs, 
For drawing hobbies by the tails, 
And threshing corn with fiery flails." 33 

33 Quoted from W. C. Taylor's " Natural History of Society " in " Primi- 
tive Culture," i. 44.. 



CHAPTER IV 

SOWING AND PLANTING 

" First all the rank and grassy herbage clear, 
Then sow your golden grain, 
Well forced and put in train ; 
Thus sown 'twill soon above the soil appear, 
And shoot aloft and fructify, 
Grow strong and fair to see, 

Full awned and eared." 1 

, i ■ ■ ■ 

One of the perplexing problems ever present with the 
agriculturist, of whatever degree of civilization, is to know 
how and when to commit the seeds to the earth, so that he 
may have reason to expect the best returns from them. 
To this end, according to his environments and intellec- 
tual condition, his experiences and observations have led 
him to adopt many strange devices. He has studied the 
stars in the heavens, seeking for light that should make 
clear to him the purposes of the Divine Ones. He has 
listened to the voices of the birds and followed their flight 
across the skies, he has speculated upon the tints of their 
plumage and the contortions of their final agonies, in his 
attempts to penetrate the mysteries of the future. One of 
the most persistent beliefs in the history of man is that 
good luck or bad luck attends certain days, or as it is ex- 
pressed by the ancient poet, " Sometimes a day is a step- 
mother, sometimes a mother." Undoubtedly Hesiod has 
voiced the convictions of the early Greek husbandmen in 
his admonition to avoid commencing to sow the grain on 
the thirteenth day from the beginning of the month, 

1 Jennings' translation of the "Shi King," III. ii. i. 

47 



4 3 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

though it is the best of days for setting plants. 2 Imbued 
with the spirit of the later days, one can but imagine the 
long series of tabulated statistics of comparative experi- 
ments, or other mental- processes by which the conclusion 
was reached in the prehistoric centuries before its embodi- 
ment in the inspired verse which has survived. An item 
from the miscellaneous collection of Grimm recalls the 
line of the old poet, and this is the way it appears after 
two thousand years : " Wheat sown in Michael's week, 
turns to cockle; barley in the first week of April, to hedge- 
mustard," 3 and an old English verse has it: 

" Upon St. David's Day, put oats and barley in the clay." 

According to legend recorded in an old manuscript, 
there were twenty-eight specified days in the year, which 
were revealed by the angel Gabriel to the good Joseph, 
which had ever been found to be fortunate for many pur- 
poses, among which were sowing seed and planting trees. 4 
Tuesday was an auspicious day for sowing corn in the 
Island of Mull, and among the Hindus Sunday was a 
favorable day for sowing seed and planting gardens. 

A method of divination for forestalling the future and 
learning the fate of the ensuing corn crop, which is adopted 
by the Kharwars on the west coast of India, is described by 
Hamilton in " Pinkerton's Voyages." 5 A festival was 
held at the end of May or beginning of June in honor of 
the infernal gods, and men were hung from a pole by 
means of tenter-hooks inserted in the flesh of their backs. 
The pole, with the men dangling from it, was then dragged 
over plowed ground from one sacred grove to another, 

a " Works and Days," 750. 

8 "Teutonic Mythology," 1824. 

4 " Credulities Past and Present," William Jones, 496. 

5 "Voyages and Travels," viii. 360. 



SOWING AND PLANTING 49 

preceded by a girl with a pot of fire on her head. At the 
second grove the men were taken from the hooks, and the 
girl in prophetic frenzy revealed the secret with which 
she had been favored by the terrestrial gods. That this 
savage rite was expected to have some magical effect upon 
the growth of the crop is likely. A Christmas song given 
by Mr. Ralston indicates that it once may have been a 
part of some magical ceremony of the Russians at the 
time of sowing the seed, believed to make the crop more 
successful : 

" Afield, afield, out in the open field ! 
There's a golden plow goes plowing, 
And behind that plow is the Lord himself. 
The Holy Peter helps him to drive, 
And the mother of God carries the seedcorn, 
Carries the seedcorn, prays to the Lord God, 
Make, O Lord, the strong wheat to grow, 
The strong wheat and the vigorous corn ; 
The stalks thus shall be like reeds, 
The ears shall be (plentiful) as blades of grass! 
The sheaves shall be (in number) like the stars! 
The stacks shall be like hills, 
The loads shall be gathered together like black clouds." ° 

Often the same stories and beliefs are found enshrined 
in both pagan and Christian songs and literature, and are 
easily transferred from one to the other. With a nominal 
change in religious forms the characteristics of the tale 
are revamped to correspond, as in the tradition of the 
Lusation Wends that the. Virgin Mary with the infant 
Jesus once passed by a field where a peasant was sowing 
barley and said to him: " God be with thee, good man! 
As soon as thou hast sown, take thy sickle and begin to 
reap." The same story is told in a song of Little Russia, 
with this modification: when the virgin passes by, instead 

G " Songs of the Russian People," 194. 



50 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

of the infant Jesus, she carries in her arms an image of the 
sun god, showing that the story is of pagan origin and 
springs from belief in magic. The effect of the warmth 
and light of the sun god is supposed to be produced by 
carrying his image, and imitating the act of reaping sym- 
bolizes the harvest,, and is expected to fit the crop for it. 

A very common idea is that of compelling or pro- 
moting the growth of a plant by indicating with the move- 
ments of hands or feet or of the body the height you de- 
sire the plant to grow, or it may be expressed in the words 
of an incantation or song, as in that of the Russians already 
given. Girls sing all kinds of songs over their work in 
the culture of flax, says Grimm. In some places at sow- 
ing time the mistress of the house used to get on the table 
and dance, then jump off backwards. The higher she 
leaped, the higher the flax would grow. Or the dame 
would jump up on the fireplace and cry: " Heads as big as 
mine, leaves like my apron, and stalks like my legs," and 
the plant was sure to prosper. Lifting the arms as high 
as they desire the hemp to grow, the Wallachians dance, 
and at midnight New Years Esthonians throw handfuls 
of grain on the shelf, crying: " God grant the grain this 
year may grow that high," or the Esthonian woman, to 
make her cabbages thrive and have large leaves, on the 
day of sowing the seed makes great pancakes, and to give 
them fine white heads she wears a dazzling white hood. 
The heads are made firm and hard by wrapping tightly in 
a linen cloth a small round stone and setting it at the end 
of the cabbage bed when they are transplanted. The 
Bavarian wears a golden ring when he sows the wheat, to 
insure for it a good healthy color. The man who sows 
flax in Thuringia, carries the seed in a bag reaching from 
shoulder to knees, which swings to and fro as he walks, 
which the growing flax will imitate in swaying in the wind. 



SOWING AND PLANTING 51 

The women let their hair hang loosely down their backs 
as they sow the rice in Sumatra, that the crop may grow 
luxuriantly in imitation of it. In Western Africa the sow- 
ing is sometimes accompanied by dances of armed men on 
the field, and in Southern India, when they sow the rice, 
sometimes they have all the musical instruments of the 
city continually sounding and making merry. Another 
method noted by Grimm for promoting the growth of the 
flax is after sowing the seed to throw the bag high in the 
air, and as high as it goes so high will the flax grow; 
but if bought on St. Lawrence day it will blast, and it will 
not thrive if you spin on Shrove Tuesday. If the sower 
when he enters the field will sit three times on his bag of 
flax seed, or if he will steal a little seed and mix with his, 
it will be well for the crop ; and if a bride will scatter flax 
by the way as she goes to her husband's home, her flax will 
thrive. 7 

The Tapuas of South America, at their yearly seeding, 
have a custom of hanging a bunch of ostrich feathers 
spread out like a wheel on the back of one of their number, 
symbolical of the fructifying power of heaven from which 
bread falls in the tuft of feathers. 8 

In the vicinity of Elizabethton, Tennessee, there is said 
to be a quite common belief that, in order to raise gourds, 
a particular ceremony of throwing the seeds over the left 
shoulder by the planter must be observed before planting 
them. They must be thrown one at a time, and an oath 
uttered as each seed is thrown. 9 The direction of the 
movement would be opposite to that of the sun, 
which would seem to indicate that the custom has some 
relation to the belief that evil spirits in working their pur- 

7 " Teutonic Mythology," 1240, 1696, 1793, 1848; "The Golden Bough," 
i. 35, iii. 124. 

8 " Native Races," iii. 318. 

9 Journal of American Folk-Lore, xiv. 207. 



52 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

poses go against the sun. The significance of the oath may 
be perhaps that it was a protection to the seed from evil 
influences, or that it served as a charm against them. In 
some countries profanity is believed to bring luck to the 
fishermen, and that cursing and swearing at the time of 
sowing make more certain a good crop, as when the Greek 
sower sowed cummin. 

Sowers of the sugar cane, in Northern India, are dec- 
orated with silver ornaments, or a necklace of flowers and 
a red mark on the forehead. It is considered a favorable 
omen if during the sowing a man on horseback comes into 
the field. Next morning after the sowing in the Punjab 
a woman puts on a necklace and walks round the field 
winding thread on a spindle, 10 a ceremony most likely be- 
lieved to promote the prosperity of the crop, though Pliny 
said that a law observed in most of the rural districts of 
ancient Italy forbade women to whirl their distaffs, or 
carry them uncovered along the highways, being liable to 
injure the crops. n In Sweden no spinning was done on 
Thursday night for fear of injuring the crops and cattle. 
Both in India and in Italy the custom is most likely associ- 
ated in some way with the old belief in the Parcae, or Fates, 
one of whom, Clothe, was the spinner of the thread of life, 
and always carried a spindle with her. It was the duty 
of the three sisters to. see that the fate fixed by eternal laws 
for each individual should be carried out without inter- 
ference by mortals or gods. Some authorities have rep- 
resented the Fates as the children of Saturn, who was com- 
monly believed to have been the beneficent ruler of the 
Golden Age. He was connected with things put in 
the earth, the protector of the seed, and later deified as the 
god of sowing and husbandry. The Saturnalia, the famous 

10 " Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India," 382. 

11 " Natural History," xxviii. 5 ; " Worship of the Romans," Granger, 147. 



SOWING AND PLANTING 53 

festival of the Romans which commemorated his reign, 
was originally held on the 17th of December, and after- 
wards extended to as many as seven days, during which 
was a period of the greatest license. The carnival was 
presided over by a mock king, chosen by lot, 12 and marked 
by feasting and revelry, during which slaves ordered 
about their masters, as a reminiscence of the Golden Age 
when all men were equal. All manner of presents were 
made, among them wax candles, which are believed to 
have descended from the Saturnalia to the Christmas 
ritual of the Roman Church. There was a public sacrifice 
at the temple of Saturn, and Horace alludes to the family 
sacrifice of a sucking pig: 

" Then pile the fuel while you may, 
And cheer your spirits high with wine. 
Give to your slaves one idle day, 
And feast upon the fatted swine." 13 

That Saturn was an old agricultural god, says Profes- 
sor Fowler, 14 admits of no doubt. Ancient artists repre- 
sented him as an old man with long, straight hair, the back 
of his head covered, who carried a pruning knife or sickle- 
shaped harp in his hand. As the time of the festival was 
originally on the 17th and later extended for five or 
seven days, so we are informed by St. Chrysostom that in 
primitive times Christmas and Epiphany (January 6), 
were celebrated at the same time until the separation of 
them at the Council of Nice, A. D. 325. As at the Satur- 
nalia, English Christmas ceremonies in the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries were periods of great license. Records 
of " Privy Purse Expenses " show that large sums were 
paid for disguises and masks for Christmas celebrations 

""Annals" of Tacitus, xiii. 15. 

13 Book iii. Ode xvii., translation of Francis. 

""Roman Festivals," 269. 



54 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

and Christmas sports. It is probable that the custom of 
decking houses and churches with evergreens at Christmas 
has descended from the practice of the Romans at the 
Saturnalia, in trimming their houses and temples with 
green boughs. Were human sacrifices originally connected 
with the rites of the Saturnalia ? Such is the contention of 
Professor Frazer from the story of the martyrdom of St. 
Dasius, which is found in recently discovered manuscripts. 
St. Dasius, a Christian soldier, in 303 A. D., was chosen by 
lot as the king of the Saturnalia by Roman soldiers at 
Durostulum, in lower Moesia, but notwithstanding the 
threats of his commanding officer, he refused to play the 
part and was beheaded, from which it is inferred that 
the sacrifice of the mock king was at one time a feature of 
the festival. 15 

The festival of the Romans more particularly connected 
with the sowing of the grain was, however, the Paganalia, 
or feria sementivte. It was held on the last days of 
January. The time for it was appointed by the magistrates 
or priests and announced by proclamation. The fall seed- 
ing was past and the spring seeding not yet begun, and the 
rite may have had reference, as Professor Fowler says, 16 to 
the seed already in the ground and to that which was still 
to be sown, or as some say, there may have been two 
ceremonies, one before the autumn and another before 
the spring sowing. The object of it was to protect 
the seed from harmful things and bring the crop to 
maturity. The gods were invoked that the seed might be 
sprinkled with the rain of. heaven and escape mis- 
chievous birds, beasts, and disease. Swine were offered 

15 " The Golden Bough," iii. 141 ; See also for a dissenting view of the 
martyrdom, Mr. Andrew Lang's " Magic and Religion," 109-121, and ap- 
pendix B. 

16 " Roman Festivals," 295. 



SOWING AND PLANTING 55 

and cakes made of eggs, flour, milk, and oil, were supplied 
by the families of the district. Each pagus, or district, 
had its altar upon which the sacrifices of the inhabitants 
included in it were made. Purification of the district was 
effected by leading the victims round it before the sacrifice. 
Ovid fixes the season for the Paganalia at the time when 
the ground is impregnated with the scattered seed and 
the farmer hangs on its peg the plow discharged from 
service. Then says he, " Let the hamlet keep holiday; 
purify the village, ye swains, and to the hamlet's altar 
give your yearly cakes. Let Ceres and Tellus, mothers of 
the fruits, be propitiated with their own corn, and the 
entrails of a pregnant sow." 17 

Ceremonies to propitiate the gods and avert evil are 
common with Hindus and Malays at the time of the sow- 
ing. Among the latter, in the olden time, when they were 
about to begin the planting of the rice, the Pawang held 
a consultation with the elders and fixed upon the date. 
Each one furnished his portion of mother seed, over which 
prayers had been read in the mosque. Incense supplied 
by the Pawang was burned, and the mother seed planted 
first in one corner of the plot. Incense was again burned 
when the grain had sprouted. 

Regulations for the planting of various crops, collected 
at Langat, in Selangor, are given by Mr. Skeat. 18 The 
following are some of them : The time to plant sugar cane 
is at noon. This will make it sweeter by drying up the 
juice and leaving the saccharine matter. If planted in the 
morning its joints will be too long, if in the middle of the 
day they will be short. Maize should be planted with a 
full stomach. If the dibble, the pointed implement used 
to make the holes in the ground, be thick it will swell the 



17 " Fasti," i. 670, Riley's trans. 
""Malay Magic," 317. 



56 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

ears of the maize. Plantains (or bananas) should be 
planted after the evening meal, as they will then fill out 
better. A starry night is best for planting sweet pota- 
toes to ensure their having plenty of eyes. If cucumbers 
and gourds are planted on a dark, moonless night it will 
prevent their being seen and devoured by fireflies. Plant 
cocoanuts when the stomach is overburdened with food. 
Run quickly and throw the cocoanut into a prepared hole 
without straightening the arm, for if you straighten it the 
fruit stalk will break. When the seed is picked some- 
one should stand at the base of the tree to watch whether 
the monkey-face of each seed cocoanut, as it is thrown 
down, turns towards himself or the base of the tree, or 
looks away from both. If the former, the seed is good, 
otherwise it is not worth planting. Rice should be planted 
about five in the morning. The Rice Soul is considered as 
an infant, and that is the hour for infants to get up. 

The sowing of the rice seed requires special preliminary 
ceremonies. Four poles are first arranged upon the 
ground so as to form a rectangular frame in the middle 
of the clearing. A young banana tree, a plant of lemon 
grass, a stem of sugar cane of a particular kind, and a 
plant of saffron are then planted in succession in the four 
corners. A cocoanut shell full of water is then deposited 
in the center of the ground enclosed by the frame. Early 
in the morning observations are carefully made to learn 
what the omens indicate. If the frame has moved ever 
so little, or the water has been spilled, it is a bad omen. If 
the frame has not moved, and the water in the shell has 
not been spilled, or if a black ant or a white ant is found in 
the water, the omen is favorable. Then plant the rice 
seed in seven holes made with a dibble of a certain kind 
of wood, repeating the charm : 



SOWING AND PLANTING 57 

" Peace be with you, Prophet Tap, 
Here I lodge with you, my child, S'ri Gading, Gemela 

Gading (husk and kernel), 
But within from six months to seven 
I will come and receive it back, 
Cluck, cluck, soul ! cluck, cluck, soul ! cluck, cluck, soul ! " 19 

A special service for expelling evil spirits from the rice 
field is sometimes held, and a mock combat takes place, in 
which they are routed and driven away. In another 
special ceremony, the hantu, the spirits who preside over 
the rice field, are propitiated and fed with the blood and 
cooked flesh of a goat. 

By formal ceremonies the Raja, at the chief agricul- 
tural festival of the Hindus, inaugurated the plowing and 
sowing. Others might not commence their work till this 
took place. The evil results following the tilling of 
the land might thus be averted. 20 It was How-tsih, the 
reputed progenitor of the Chow dynasty, according to 
legends of the Chinese, who first taught husbandmen to 
sow the golden grain. He introduced the proper cere- 
monies to be observed in sowing and planting rice, sweet 
potatoes, and millet. The formal sowing of the rice was 
for the reigning monarch himself to conduct, but princes 
of the emperor's family might sow or plant other vege- 
tables and grains. 21 The Kharwars of India, at the sow- 
ing, take five handfuls of grain from the sowing basket 
and invoke Dharti Mata, the earth goddess, to be pro- 
pitious. This grain is kept and ground and offered at her 
annual festival. Before the spring sowing of the Pankas 
an offering of five cakes is made to the village gods by the 
Baiga, the priest of the local deities, who consumes the 
sacrifice himself. Whatever remains of the seed grain is 

""Malay Magic," 229. 

20 " Village Communities," G. L. Gomme, 180. 

""Origin of Cultivated Plants," Candolle, 285. 



58 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

given away to beggars and laborers. The custom prevails 
throughout Northern India. The Mundas sacrifice a he- 
goat and a cock at the rice sowing, to their ancestral 
shades, to propitiate them, for they might otherwise pre- 
vent the seed from germinating. 22 In Java every paddy 
field is thought to have its spirit, and no man will readily 
venture to begin sowing until an offering has been made 
by the priest. 23 

Perambulation of the field, after the sowing, by a 
woman wearing a necklace, has been alluded to, and the 
story told of Raja Brooke indicates confidence in the fer- 
tilizing power of the necklace among the Dyaks of Sara- 
wak. Sir James Brooke was made Raja and Governor 
of Sarawak in Borneo in 1841. The natives believed him 
to possess magical powers to such an extent that he could 
make the rice crop abundant at his pleasure. When he 
visited a tribe the seed to be sown the next year was taken 
to him, which he fertilized for them by shaking over it the 
women's necklaces which had been previously dipped in a 
prepared mixture. The women washed and bathed his feet 
with water and the milk of a young cocoanut, and the water 
was carefully preserved and distributed on the farms to 
secure a good crop. When they were too far away for 
this they sent him pieces of white cloth and pieces of gold 
and silver, to which was imparted the generating virtue 
with which they imagined him to be possessed. These 
articles were then buried in the fields and a successful crop 
was confidently awaited. Shaking the necklace over 
the seed was probably suggested by knowledge' of their 
belief in its magical properties, and this might be owing 
to the fact of its association with women. When Father 
Gumilla asked the men of the Orinoco tribe why they did 

22 " Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India," W. Crooke, 371. 
23 F. Ratzel's " History of Mankind," i. 473. 



SOWING AND PLANTING 59 

not assist the women in the field, they replied that the 
women knew how to bring forth and could tell it to the 
grain, but the men did not know how they did it and could 
not teach it to the grains. The wife of a Sioux, after she 
had planted her corn patch, would rise in the night, strip 
herself naked, and walk around the field, to impart to the 
grain the magic of her own fertility. It was also an 
Ojibwa custom for the wife, some dark night after the 
planting, to divest herself of clothing and drag her prin- 
cipal garment around the field as a safeguard against pests, 
and to make the seed germinate. 24 The Pawnees moist- 
ened their seed corn with the blood of a woman, and 
selected a female prisoner to supply it. As the 
Sioux woman ran round the cornfield, so on St. John's 
night the peasant girls in the Saalfield country stripped 
themselves naked and danced round the flax and wallowed 
in it to impart to it vigor. 25 Seeds, however, were steril- 
ized if touched by a menstruous woman, 26 according to 
Pliny, and if a menstruous woman stripped herself naked 
and walked round a field of wheat, caterpillars, worms and 
beetles and vermin would fall off the ears of grain, but 
if it was done at sunrise the crops would wither. He says 
the discovery was first made at Cappadocia, where it was 
practiced to protect the fields from these pests. They 
sometimes walked through the middle of the field with 
their clothing tucked up above the thighs, and in other 
places they walked barefoot with hair disheveled and 
girdle loose. Something akin to this belief is one recorded 
by Grimm, 27 that before sowing barley the seed should be 
run through a man's shirt. Then the sparrows will not 
touch it. 

24 Journal of American Folk-Lore, xi. 198. 

25 Grimm, 1798. 

28 " Natural History," vii. 13; xxviii. 23. 
'"" Teutonic Mythology," 1825. 



60 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

The fancy of the Breton peasant that clover seed sowed 
when the tide is coming in will grow well, but if sown at 
low water or when the tide is going out the crop will not 
reach maturity and cows that feed upon it will burst, is 
a conception not unlike that of the Malays already men- 
tioned, of planting or sowing the seed after a full meal, 
when the distended stomach is expected to magically in- 
fluence the seed to swell and germinate. It is possible that 
a similar belief may have been connected with a custom 
which Pliny thinks was true of the early Egyptians, of 
driving herds of swine over the sown fields to tread in 
the seed after the subsidence of the Nile. 2S It was affirmed 
by Greek authors 29 that the Egyptians only partook of the 
flesh of the swine when they sacrificed to the moon at the 
full because of its sacredness or its impurity, but another 
reason is given by Pliny, who had it from the Greek 
mathematician Eudoxus, who learned from conversation 
with Egyptian priests during fourteen months spent in 
Egypt that the reason they abstained from eating the pig 
was because of its utility in agriculture in treading the 
seed into the earth. Referring to the custom of a period of 
revelry and license which has prevailed among so many 
peoples at the time of sowing, Mr. Frazer says: " Be- 
tween the sower and the seed there is commonly supposed 
to exist a sympathetic connection . . . what wonder 
then if the simple husbandman imagined ... by 
swilling and guzzling just before he proceeded to sow 
his fields he thereby imparted additional vigor to the 
seed?" 30 Mr. Andrew Lang, combating the theory of 
Mr. Frazer, says like excesses take place among non- 
agricultural peoples, and sometimes take place at the end 

28 "Natural History," xviii. 47; 168. 

29 Herodotus ii. 47 ; Plutarch, " Isis and Osris," viii. 
30 " The Golden Bough," iii. 145. 



SOWING AND PLANTING 61 

of the harvest as well as at the sowing, and are " not so 
much to improve the prospects of farming " as it is 
because of the " devilry " in them on account of the 
ending of their labors when they are " full of meat and 
drink." He notes, however, that in the Hindu-Kush 
at the end of harvest license exists, when devils are driven 
out, and then seed is sown. 31 

That the germination of the seed and the development 
of the plant was promoted by indulgence of the sexual 
passions at the time of sowing the seed has been a com- 
mon belief and practice among many tribes of people. 
Priests sometimes enjoined it upon the people as a religious 
duty. The fields were sometimes visited by night for that 
purpose, thinking thereby to impart fertility to the crop. 
Men and women sometimes rolled together on the field, 
or, as in some parts of Russia, the priest was rolled by 
women over the sprouting grain. Again the opposite 
view has prevailed and the strictest chastity insisted upon 
during the sowing and growth of the plant, as was the 
case among the Germans of Transylvania, where no man 
might sleep with his wife during the time of sowing the 
seed, and with the Karens of Burma, who believed that 
any illicit indulgence tended to imperil the harvest. The 
Indians of Nicaragua ate no salt or pepper, nor did they 
drink any intoxicating beverage, or cohabit with their 
women during the time of planting, while the Pipiles for 
some days before planting the seed of the cacao kept apart 
from their wives, and then indulged their passions to the 
fullest extent on the night before the planting. Persons 
were even said to have been selected to perform the sexual 
act at the very moment that the seed was put in the ground. 
In this way were stimulated the impulses for reproduction 
which it was believed the earth had the same as quadru- 

81 "Magic and Religion," 187, 188. 



62 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

peds, a belief that Pliny says was agreed to by correct 
writers of his time. 32 In Burma a period of fasting, which 
has been called the Buddhist Lent, is observed while the 
plowing and sowing of the fields is attended to. During this 
time of fasting no marriages take place. They abstain from 
tobacco, and remain at home. The custom is believed to 
be older than Buddhism. Their maintenance for the rest 
of the year is believed to depend upon its observance. Mr. 
Frazer suggests, though he finds no positive evidence of it, 
that the Saturnalia may have been followed by a period of 
fasting and that Lent may be merely the " continuation, 
under a thin disguise, of a period of temperance which 
was annually observed, from superstitious motives, by 
Italian farmers long before the Christian Era." 33 After 
the Peruvians had sown their seed in July certain of the 
priests fasted till the plant had grown a finger length out 
of the ground. Their wives and children fasted also and 
ate nothing but boiled maize and herbs. The common 
people held a feast and chanted songs beseeching a pros- 
perous year. Dressed in red shirts reaching to the feet, 
with no mantles, they sang and danced. Various orders 
of priests sacrificed white sheep. Offerings were made of 
maize, cocoa, plumes of colored feathers, and certain kinds 
of seashells. A hunter's feast was held by the Mayas on 
a day appointed by the priest, to avert evil from the seed 
which they had sown, it was said, lest the angry gods 
should withhold the crop on account of the blood that had 
been spilled in the chase, though we may question whether 
the custom itself was not far older than the latter thought. 
In the preceding harvest the priests of the maize god in 
Quegolani visited the cornfield with a procession of the 

32 "Natural History," xviii, 56; "Native Races," ii. 719, 720; "The 
Golden Bough," ii. 205-211. 
83 " The Golden Bough," iii. 146. 



SOWING AND PLANTING 63 

people and selected the fairest ear, which they carried to 
the village and placed on a decorated altar before which 
they sang and danced, and then clothed it in white and 
preserved it till the next seedtime, when, with solemn rites, 
this magic ear with its white robe was wrapped in deer- 
skin and buried in the midst of the cornfield, in a hole lined 
with stones. If a fruitful harvest followed, the decayed 
remains of the auspicious ear were taken up carefully and 
distributed among the people as talismans against evil. 
Early travelers in Florida have written of similar cus- 
toms. At the end of February they took as large a deer 
hide as could be obtained, and with the horns left on, they 
filled it with various herbs and sewed it together. The 
best fruits were fastened on the horns or otherwise 
attached to the hide. It was then taken to an open space 
and fastened to a high tree, with the head turned toward 
the east. King and magicians officiated in the ceremonies, 
and prayers were offered to the sun for the same fruits in 
future. So the Prussian Slavs killed a goat and consumed 
its flesh at the time of sowing the winter corn. The skin 
was hung upon a high pole near an oak, where it remained 
till the harvest, when a bunch of all sorts of corn and herbs 
was hung over it. A peasant officiated as a priest and 
offered a prayer. The young people joined hands and 
danced around it. Preparatory to the planting, one of 
the keepers of the sacred tent selected a number of perfect 
red ears at the harvest and laid them by. In the spring a 
crier went through the village announcing the planting 
time, carrying the kernels of this sacred ear, two or three 
of which* were given to each householder. This was 
mixed with ordinary seed, and then all might begin the 
planting. 34 That these varying but kindred ceremonies 

34 " Rites of the Incas," p. 19; Journal of American Folk-Lore, xi. 201, 
xiv. 310; "Native Races," ii. 350, 691. 



64 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

among different peoples were in their traditional belief 
held as important and likely to have a favorable influence 
on the future harvest, cannot be doubted. The exaltation 
of the best fruits would be a symbolization of the harvest 
which the magic rite was intended to produce. In the 
stuffed deer hide the spirit of vegetation might be con- 
ceived as incarnated, upon which the life and growth of 
the crop depended. 

Old English writers have explained in various ways the 
custom of wearing leeks in their hats by the ancient 
Welshmen on the ist of March, St. David's day. It is 
said to have been sufficient grounds for a quarrel with a 
Welshman if anyone did not honor his cap with a leek 
upon that day. Owen's " Cambrian Biography," written 
in 1803, says: " In some districts in South Wales, all the 
neighbors of a small farmer without means, appoint a day 
when they all attend to plow his land, and the like; and 
at such a time it is the custom for each individual to bring 
his portion of leeks, to be used in making pottage for the 
whole company." A more probable explanation than 
that given by Owen, of the origin of the custom, is sug- 
gested by Brand. As the leek was worshiped in Egypt 
and Askalon, and deposited in the sacred chests of the 
mysteries, it was also sacred to Ceudven, the agricultural 
deity of the ancient Druids, and it was worn on that day 
to win the favor of the god by paying him reverence, and 
so secure a favorable reception of the seed in the earth. 35 

The curious law of the Israelites forbidding the sowing 
of mingled seeds in the same field 3G appears to have been 
based upon some early belief that such mixing 'up of the 
crops was unacceptable to the deities of vegetation and so 
the earth became defiled and the harvest jeopardized. 

"Brand, 54. 

80 Lev. xix. 19; Deut. xxii. 9. 



SOWING AND PLANTING 6s 

In the extensive collection of Grimm there is noted a 
custom of the people of the Rhone, on the night before 
Christmas, of rolling upon unthrashed pea straw, when the 
peas that dropped out, mixed with the rest, were thought 
to improve the crop; and another custom of the boys and 
girls running like mad about the fields with blazing wisps 
of straw, on the first day of Lent to drive out the evil 
sower. This is given from the Lithuanians : Sow peas 
when the wind is from a soft (rainy) quarter, for then 
they will boil well, but according to another saying, if you 
have eaten peas or beans, sow none the same week, for they 
will fail. 37 

Corn planting among the Cherokee Indians was attend- 
ed with much ceremony. 38 The grains always put in each 
hill were seven, the sacred number. The blades were 
never afterward thinned out. Strict regulations were 
observed in the early working of the crop. In one of 
their older ceremonies the priest stood in succession at 
each of the four corners of the field and wept and wailed, 
presumably for the death of the corn spirit which these 
rites were to bring to life again in the new corn. When 
the Apache plant corn the medicine men bury eagle-plume 
sticks in the fields, scatter that mysterious powder known 
as hoddentin, and sing. When the corn is partially grown 
pinches of the same material are scattered over it. 30 

In the wise counsels of Sir Anthony Herbert to husband- 
men three and three-quarters centuries ago, he has this 
to say upon the same subject of sowing peas and beans at 
the proper time: 40 "How shall ye know seasonable 
tyme? Go upon the lande, that is plowed, and if it synge 

""Teutonic Mythology," 1809, 1820, 1848. 

38 James Mooney, Nineteenth Ethnological Report, 423. 

a " J. G. Bourke, in Ninth Annual Ethnological Report, 502. 

40 "The Book of Husbandry," 19, 20. 



66 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

or crye, or make any noyse under thy fete, then it is to wete 
to sowe ; and if it make no noyse, and wyll beare thy horses, 
thanne sowe in the name of God." Another sentiment 
from this quaint old writer, with which we are in full 
accord, may not be inappropriate in bringing to a close this 
chapter. Among the other " cornes " sowed by the hus- 
bandman it is important to mingle the seed called " discre- 
tion," for they will " growe moche the better. He that 
lacketh, let hym borrowe of his neyghbors that have, for 
this seed of Discretion hath a wondrous property; for the 
more that it is taken of or lente, the more it is." 



CHAPTER V 

MAKING PRODUCTIVE 

" For luck or for favor, for good or for ill, 

The fairies then governed, the pixies held sway; 
And shepherd and crofter, on Sutherland's hill, 

Would bow to the magic of elfin or fay. 
Oh ! mock not the name, for our forbears held faith 

That fairies, who flit through the moonlight or shade, 
Ruled over the fate of the crops and the kine, 

Could destiny curb, or bring gloom to the glade." * 

The savage, living upon fruits and roots which he finds 
ready and waiting for his hands to pluck, is the lowest in 
the scale of humanity. The hunter, who subsists upon 
the wild game which he ensnares by his rude contrivances, 
or brings to death by such crude weapons as may be within 
the limits of his capacity for construction and utilization, 
is accorded a higher degree of intelligence. Civilization, 
it may be said, has really begun with a people when they 
have taken their first steps in agriculture and begun to 
cultivate the soil, however humble these early efforts 
may be. 

In contemplating the early history of husbandry noth- 
ing is more impressive than the apparent lack of confi- 
dence in the resources of the people, and the general recog- 
nition of their dependence on power or powers not of them- 
selves, which was for or against them, for good or evil, 
through whose favor, by propitiation, conciliation, or 
supplication, they secured plentiful crops, or through 
whose hostility or malignance the harvests failed. 

1 Kate A. Simpson, in Chambers' Journal. 

67 



68 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

The environments, the traditions, and the degree of 
civilization which has been attained have determined 
the character of the methods by which every people has 
striven to overcome antagonistic forces or counteract their 
effects. With enlightenment there comes to the agricul- 
turist an awakened consciousness of his own power and 
its limitations, and a more rational realization of the pos- 
sibilities of his own resources. He no longer charges up 
to diabolical agencies the failures which are clearly 
attributable to his own lack of foresight or to his neglect. 
Hope of the harvest no longer centers in anticipated special 
divine favors, or in the ministrations of priests and saints. 

Traces of the early customs of a people are never, how- 
ever, entirely obliterated from the characteristics of their 
descendants. Survivals of them point back to earlier 
observances. In many parts of the earth there are cere- 
monies connected with agricultural life which are most 
interesting. From the records of them in the past, some 
of which indeed are horrible, much information is to be 
gleaned which cannot be ignored by the earnest and impar- 
tial student of the history of human progress. 

The celebrated author of the " Roman Questions," 
writing about the beginning of the second century of the 
Christian Era, asks : " What is the reason that in the 
month of May they use at Rome to cast over their wooden 
bridge into the river certain images of men which they call 
Argeos?" 2 An earlier writer, Dionysius, recorded that 
these images had the appearance of men bound hand and 
foot. Tradition said that in older times aged men, after 
they had reached sixty years, were thus sacrificed. There 
was an old Roman proverb : " Old men must go over the 
bridge." It was on the day before the Ides of May, 
according to the verse of Ovid, that the Vestal virgins 

' Translation of Philemon Holland, 1603, edited by Frank Byron Jevons. 



MAKING PRODUCTIVE 69 

threw from the oak-built bridge the images of the ancient 
men, platted in rushes. 3 The interpretation of the cus- 
tom, as given by Plutarch, points to the earlier sacrifice of 
captives. He says his countrymen formerly threw over 
the bridge the Greeks found in the country, till Hercules 
put an end to it, and taught them to make and toss over 
counterfeit men instead of living men. The festival 
marked the passing of spring and the beginning of sum- 
mer. Whether in earlier times the sacrificial rites accom- 
panying it were offerings to the river god Tiberinus, or, as 
Ovid and Dionysius say, to the old agricultural deity Sat- 
urnus, the ceremony was an earnest of fertility for the en- 
suing year. Moisture and rain were secured by throwing 
into the water the victims, who perhaps were representa- 
tives of the spirit of vegetation. The people still clung to 
the ceremonial when they were no longer favorably im- 
pressed with the cruelty connected with it. The harsher 
features were eliminated when, on account of the growing 
prejudice against them, they were no longer tolerated. 
To the popular deities and heroes were then given the 
credit of effecting the modification of them and the 
substitution of images. The story of the transition, as 
related by the distinguished author, is the product of the 
thought of his own times, and the hand of Hercules in it is 
evidence of the prominence of the Hercules cult at the 
period in which Plutarch wrote or at the time of the 
origin of the story. 

The substitution of the image of a man for a living man 
in sacrificial rites was not uncommon in antiquity. In some 
of the villages of the Bhagats in India they made the 
wooden image of a man annually and, putting clothes and 
ornaments upon it, presented it before the altar of a 
Mahadeo, when the one who officiated as a priest ex- 

3 "Fasti," v. 621. 



7 o MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

claimed: "O Mahddeo, we sacrifice this man to you 
according to ancient customs. Give us rain in due season, 
and a plentiful harvest." With a stroke of the ax the 
head of the image was cut off, as probably in earlier days 
the head of the living man had been. Images of dough 
were at times substituted for human sacrifices by the 
Aztecs, and in Hopi legends, in later days, corn and flour 
came to be used where a child or chief had once been used, 
though the substitutes were still spoken of as male and 
female, and a human face was painted on the end of the 
prayer stick. The snake ceremonies of the Tusayans, 
according to the conclusions of an eminent authority, were 
intended to promote the growth of the corn, and bring 
plentiful rain. 4 

There was an annual festival held by the Ionians at the 
temple and grove of Artemis Triclaria, which continued 
all night long. The priestess of the goddess was a maiden 
who was dismissed on marrying. A legendary story 
explains the origin of the human sacrifices connected with 
the ceremonies in this way: The beautiful priestess Com- 
aetho had a lover Melanippus, who asked for her hand in 
marriage, but the parents of both refusing their consent, 
they appropriated the temple of the goddess for a bridal 
chamber to gratify their unsanctioned love. The angry 
goddess brought a failure of the harvest and increased 
mortality upon the people. The oracle of Delphi placed 
the blame for these calamities upon the unfortunate lovers, 
and to bring an end to them commanded that hereafter 
there should be an annual sacrifice to the offended deity of 
the most handsome maiden. It was revealed to them later 
thac an end to the human sacrifices would be made by a 
foreign god that should be brought into the country by a 

4 J. Walter Fewkes in Sixteenth Annual Report of Bureau of American 
Ethnology for 1894-5, p. 307. 



MAKING PRODUCTIVE 71 

foreign conqueror or king. Aesymnetes proved to be the 
god of the chest who was credited with effecting a change 
in the rite. Nine men and maidens chosen for their 
beauty and worth officiated annually as directors of the 
ceremony which was substituted. All the lads of the 
district went down to the river with crowns on their 
heads made of ears of corn. These crowns were laid near 
the statue of the goddess. Then they bathed in the river, 
put on crowns of ivy, and repaired to the temple of the 
god of the chest. It is said that when the human victims 
were sacrificed they were decorated in the same way with 
crowns of corn. 5 The whole tradition indicates a cere- 
mony originally with human sacrifices for the purpose of 
increasing the productivity of the land. The idea of the 
sacrifice as a punishment for violating the purity of the 
temple is an explanation conceived long afterwards when 
the intellectual advancement of the people had made 
repulsive the primitive custom. Then the original cere- 
mony was superseded by one fitting the ethical and 
esthetical ideas of the later period, and one with obvious 
resemblance to festivals of modern times, when the altars 
are loaded with fruits, and hymns of thanksgiving are 
sung. 

That the Hebrews, like other ancient peoples, believed 
in the necessity of human sacrifices to avert famine and 
secure plentiful harvests is evident from their sacred 
records. When in the days of David there was a famine 
three years, year after year, the seven sons of Saul were 
delivered up to the Gideonites for an offering to Jahveh, 
and they were hanged " in the first days, in the beginning 
of the barley harvest." 6 

There is a tradition that the god Dionysus once inti- 

8 Pausanias, vii. xix. 
6 2 Sam. xxi. 6-9. 



72 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

mated to the Edonians that fertility would be restored to 
their lands if they put their king Lycurgus to death, and 
that they had him torn to pieces by horses. It is recorded in 
the early history of Sweden that King Domalde was sac- 
rificed to Odin and the altars smeared with his blood, to 
put an end to a famine. Every tree and every leaf of the 
grove near the temple of Odin at ancient Upsal were held 
sacred, and this grove was filled with the bodies of men 
who had been offered up to Odin for a fruitful season 
and the good of the harvest. The formula used by the 
priests was sometimes, " I devote thee for a good harvest, 
for the return of the fruitful season." 7 

The Dyaks hunt for human heads, which are supposed 
to bring them prosperity. They make the paddy grow 
and the land productive, and cause the forests to abound 
with game. They are considered even more fertilizing 
than water with which gold has been washed, which is 
the gift of the Raja, or water which has been poured over 
the sacred stones. 8 The Kayans and the Kenyas of 
Borneo, after successful head-hunting raids, set up four 
posts on the bank of the river, carved at the top to repre- 
sent a man's head, to which are tied fragments of the 
enemy, a rib or an arm, or leg bone, as offerings to drive 
away evil spirits. The heads are hung up in their houses 
to bring them blessings and plentiful crops. They keep 
off sickness and pains. It is believed to be a good and 
beneficent custom bequeathed them by their fathers. 9 

It is told by a people of eastern Africa, to account for 
their sacrifice of their firstborn, sons, that once upon a time 
the seasons were bad, their crops had failed and the fruits 
would not ripen, and at that time a pillar of iron stood at 

'"Northern Antiquities," 113. 

8 " History of Mankind," F. Ratzel, ii. 143. 

9 " Home Life of Borneo Head-Hunters," W. H. Furness, Jr.,. p. 59. 



MAKING PRODUCTIVE 73 

the entrance of the capital, which by the advice of the 
soothsayers was broken down by order of the king, and 
the king was commanded by the wizards to pour human 
blood once a year on the broken shaft and upon the throne, 
and that thereafter the seasons became regular and fruit- 
ful, but that certain families had since been obliged to 
deliver up for sacrifice their firstborn sons at an appointed 
time. Among some ancient Italian peoples it was cus- 
tomary in times of calamity and failure of the crops to 
make a vow to sacrifice every creature born of man or 
beast in the ensuing spring. 10 

From the words that Homer puts into the mouth of 
Ulysses, when, disguised as a beggar, he is questioned by 
Penelope, the belief of the early Greeks is inferred in the 
power of a blameless king who maintains the right and 
fears the gods. He made the black earth to bear wheat 
and barley, the trees to be laden with fruit, and the ewes 
to bring forth and fail not. 11 If good rulers made sure of 
successful seasons and harvests, those evilly disposed 
might endanger the welfare of the people and cause 
famine. The ancient Irish believed that when kings acted 
in conformity to the institutions of their ancestors the 
seasons v/ould be favorable and the harvests abundant, but 
when they disregarded the established customs and laws, 
drouth, plague, and famine followed. The king of Egypt 
was addressed as the creator of the harvest, lord of rich 
gifts, increaser of the corn, and he was styled the meas- 
urer of the sun's course. Mexican kings at their succes- 
sion took an oath that they would cause the sun to shine 
and the crops to grow in abundance. 12 The Samoans 
attributed the scarcity of food to the Sacred One (O le 

""The Golden Bough," ii. 51, 54. 

11 Odyssey, xix. 109. 

u " Primitive Folk," E. Reclus, 225. 



74 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

Sa). The sun, storms, caterpillars, and destructive 
insects were his servants. They were commissioned by 
him to go out and eat up or destroy the plantations of 
those who offended him. To pacify his wrath and secure 
his favor, drink offerings of 'ava were poured out to him. 
Before beginning the evening meal a little 'ava was poured 
on the ground and the act accompanied with supplication 
that the plantation might be productive. 13 

In Iroquois legend the spirits of corn, beans, and squash 
are represented as three sisters, very beautiful females, 
who were very fond of each other and delighted to dwell 
together. After the last tilling of the cornfield the 
priest of the Cherokee and an assistant went to the 
center of the field and built a small enclosure, which they 
entered, seating themselves upon the ground and bending 
down their heads, the assistant keeping perfect silence 
while the priest, with rattle in hand, sang songs of invoca- 
tion to the spirit of the corn. The ceremony was repeated 
on four successive nights, which were followed by seven 
nights during which no one entered the field, both four and 
seven being sacred numbers with them, and then, if these 
regulations had been properly observed, the priest entered 
the field alone and found young ears upon the stalks. 
According to their legend, if melons or squashes were 
counted or examined too closely while still growing on the 
vine they ceased to thrive. One must not step over 
the vine or it would wither before the fruit ripened. 
One who had eaten a May-apple must not come near the 
vines under any circumstances, as this plant withers and 
dries up very quickly, and its presence would make the 
melons wither also. 14 

""Samoa," George Turner, pp. 108, 116. 

14 " Myths of the Cherokee," James Mooney, 423, 424, in Nineteenth 
Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 



MAKING PRODUCTIVE 75 

It is the duty of a priest called the Laleen, among the 
Alfoors of Celebes, to make the rice grow. His functions 
begin about a month before the sowing begins and con- 
tinue until after the harvest. 15 During this time the 
Laleen must not eat or drink with anyone else or out of 
another's dish. The reason for this prohibition seems 
to be founded on the belief that if he should eat with, 
another some part of the food associated with him might 
be used in magic by evilly disposed persons to injure him 
and through him to ruin the crop. Neither must the 
Laleen have his hair cut during this period, for some 
magician might work evil to him and the harvest with 
the clippings. 

Mr. Martin, in describing his early voyage to the West- 
ern Islands of Scotland, speaks of an invariable custom 
of pouring cow's milk on a little hill or big stone where 
the spirit called Brownie lodged, to which they gave 
the shape of a tall man with long brown hair. He says 
there was scarcely a small village where this practice was 
not observed. It had always been done by their ancestors, 
and apparently without any other reason they continued 
to do it, believing it was a means of securing good luck to 
them and bringing prosperity. 16 It seems not improbable 
that the custom may have originated in ancestral offerings. 

That the manes, shades, or spirits of the dead con- 
tinued to have power and influence in the affairs of the 
living is a belief that has extensively prevailed. If they 
were propitiated and kindly disposed they gave assistance ; 
if neglected, they worked injury. In a Hessian folk-tale 
one Kurt, a farmer, would not quit the farm, though dead, 
but continued to lend a hand in the fieldwork. Like a 
good spirit he assisted in the work in the barn and threw 

15 "The Golden Bough," i. 318. 
10 Pinkerton's "Voyages," iii. 619. 



76 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

the sheaves from the loft. To secure the favorable 
influence of the ancestral shades they demand a remem- 
brance in the festivals of the season, and a share of the 
products must be set aside for them. Their resting 
places are supplied with corn, bread, and meat. Among 
the Polynesians the departed ancestors presided over the 
growth of yams and fruit trees, and received prayers and 
offerings in return. The benevolent spirits of the Zulus 
brought health, cattle, and corn, but in their anger they 
wrought destruction, and slew their warriors. 

In a very ancient belief of the Egyptians the dead made 
their way to a region called Sekhet-Aaru, where they 
enjoyed life very much as they did while living. Pictures 
of this realm are painted on coffins of the eleventh dynasty 
(2902-2852 B.C.). There they must be supplied with 
food and drink as in life. To provide for their susten- 
ance without toil, recourse was had to magical prepara- 
tions and rites. A stone image of the deceased, after 
having been duly consecrated by the priests and empow- 
ered by proper formulas to do whatever was required of 
it, was buried with him. The image was provided with 
representations of implements for plowing and thrashing, 
and even for carrying the produce. Sometimes by hiero- 
glyphic inscriptions upon them the images were instructed 
to assume the responsibility of sowing the fields, filling 
the water courses, and bringing the sands for fertilizing. 
The use of these images in burial continued down to the 
Roman period, the grave of Seti I., about 1370 B.C., 
containing no less than seven hundred such figures. 17 

One of the maxims of the Egyptian scribe Ani declares 
that when there is ruin in the field which has been sown, 
the spirits of the dead ancestors must be invoked to assist 
and protect them or they would cry out against the malig- 

17 " Egyptian Magic," E. A. Wallace Budge, 73. 



MAKING PRODUCTIVE 77 

nant influence of the evil spirits and endeavor to propitiate 
them. 18 After the death of Saul, David took the bones 
of Saul and Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, 
" and they gathered up the bones of them that were 
hanged," all the rites were performed which the king 
commanded, and " after that God was entreated for the 
land." 19 

We have already referred to offerings made to the soul 
or spirit of the paddy before beginning the sowing in 
Java. It is a common belief that if the soul or spirit of 
the plant is taken away or destroyed the plant will die. 
The Dyaks of Borneo assign a soul to the paddy, and 
hold a feast to retain it securely lest the crop decay. The 
Karens say that plants have their " La," and they call 
back the spirit of sickly rice, believing that it has left the 
plant and that this is the cause of its lack of thrift and 
vitality. They have formulas for replacing it. One of 
them, in part, says: " O come, rice kelah, come. Come 
to the field. Come to the rice . . . Come from the 
west. Come from the east. From the throat of the bird, 
from the maw of the ape, from the throat of the elephant 
from all granaries come. O rice kelah, come to 
the rice." 20 

In Russian myths the Rusalkas have much to do with 
the harvest. The peasants of White Russia say they 
dwell among the standing corn, and they are expelled by 
proper ceremonies which are observed in some parts of the 
country. These female water nymphs can ruin the crop 
at their pleasure by bringing on winds and floods. The 
rite for their expulsion takes place after the Whitsuntide 
festival. In Little Russia the circles of dark and richer 

""Oldest Books of the World," Isaac Myer, 195; "Primitive Civiliza- 
tions," i. 144. 
19 2 Sam. xxi. 12-14. 
30 " Primitive Culture," i. 47s. 



78 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

grass which are found in the fields are thought to grow 
in the places where these nymphs dance beneath the 
moon. 21 

The Robigalia was one of the older Roman agricul- 
tural festivals. It was celebrated April 25th. The 
month was regarded as a critical one for the young corn 
which was committed to the protection of the gods. 
Robigo, from which the festival takes its name, means 
red rust or mildew. When the ear is beginning to be 
formed it attacks cereals. Robigus was the spirit work- 
ing in the mildew, which, propitiated with the offerings 
and ceremonies, was invoked to spare the growing corn. 
Ovid returning from Nomentum witnessed the rite per- 
formed in the grove specially dedicated to Robigus on the 
Via Claudia. He tells us that he joined the procession, 
which was clothed in white. The flamen carried in his 
hands a towel and frankincense and a bowl of wine. The 
wine and frankincense were placed upon the altar of the 
temple. A dog and a sheep had been killed at Rome in 
the morning and their vitals were carried as an offering 
to the god. As an old English poet renders Ovid's 
lines : 

" A flamen into Rust's old grove did hie, 
The entrails of a dog and sheep to frie." 

The reason assigned by the priest, according to the Latin 
poet, for the sacrifice of the dog was that the dangerous 
Dog-star was in the ascendant. It was not true, for 
Sirius did not rise, but disappeared, April 25th. " The 
real meaning of the choice of victim," says Professor 
Fowler, 22 "was unknown both to priest and poet; but 
modern research has made a reasonable attempt to 

n " Songs of the Russian People," 143. 
33 " Roman Festivals," 90. 



MAKING PRODUCTIVE 79 

recover it." It was a piece of sympathetic magic to per- 
fect the corn. Red-haired puppies were sacrificed, or 
tawny-colored, and the color may have had reference to 
the. red mildew, as Mannhardt explains it, or as Frazer 
thinks, 23 the offerings were for the purpose of making the 
corn grow " ripe and ruddy." The sacrifice was accom- 
panied by a prayer of the flamen which the Roman poet 
versifies : 

" Corroding Robigo, do thou spare the blade of the corn, and let the smooth 
top quiver on the surface of the ground. 
Spare, I pray thee, and keep thy rough hands from the crops; injure 

not our fields; 
More to our benefit wilt thou corrode the swords and the hurtful weapons; 

them we want not; the world is at peace, 
Let the husbandman be ever enabled to pay his vows to thee, keeping 
thyself afar." 24 

Poetic tradition ascribes to Ceres, goddess of corn, the 
first pleasure in the blood of an animal. When she found 
that in the early spring the corn swelling with its milky 
juice was rooted up by the snout of the bristly swine, from 
that day she insisted upon their paying the penalty of 
their transgression. So the goat was condemned to be 
sacrificed, and his blood sprinkled on the horns of the wine 
god, as a penalty for lacerating the vine with his teeth. 

In a work written in 1570, St. Edith is regarded as the 
representative of the Roman Robigus, and it is said that 
the image of St. Edith at Kamsing prevented blasting, 
mildew, and other injuries to the corn. The husbandman 
who wished to save his crops from evil influences took a 
quantity of corn to the priest, who, after putting by some 
of it for his own use, sprinkled a handful of the grain with 
holy water, repeated " a few words of conjuration," and 
dedicated it to St. Edith. He then gave it back to the 

23 " The Golden Bough," ii. 255. 
24 Trans. H. T. Riley, iv. 912. 



8o MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

farmer who used it with his seed. A story is told of St. 
Ailbhe, that he once expostulated with the birds in the 
neighborhood which were destroying the corn, and his 
oratory made such an impression upon them that forth- 
with, penitent and ashamed, they flew away. A similar 
story is related of a Saint of Brittany, St. Pol de Leon. 
The fields of the monastery in which he was a student 
were ravaged by birds and the whole crop was in danger 
of being destroyed. St. Pol summoned the culprits before 
the principal of the monastery, St. Hydultus, who gave 
them reproof and admonition, and dismissed them with a 
benediction, but the grateful birds never touched the corn 
of the monastery again. 25 

The sacrifice of the Robigalia is suggested in a custom 
of the cacao planters among the Mayas, who assembled 
upon the plantation of one of their number annually in 
a particular month and sacrificed a dog which had a spot 
on it of the color of the cacao, 26 which was believed to have 
a favorable effect upon the crop. Each of those who offi- 
ciated bore away with him a branch of the cacao-plant. 
Here the selection of a dog having a spot colored like the 
plant is proof of the magical character of the rite. The 
deities, pleased with the attention and offering, would be 
constrained to take care that the color with which the 
sacrifice was marked was repeated in the harvest. Pray- 
ers were offered and incense burned at the four corners of 
the field before the work of weeding was begun. 

In the " Book of Rites " of the Chinese it is said the 
ancients prayed to Shang Ti for grain, and presented an 
offering of a bullock without blemish, which had been 
stall-fed for three months before the day of sacrifice. 27 A 

25 " Credulities, Past and Present," 324, 327. 

20 Bancroft's " Native Races," ii. 692. 

27 "Lore of Cathay," W. A. P. Martin, 168. 



MAKING PRODUCTIVE 81 

magical charm for securing a good season, described by 
Sir John Barrow, British Ambassador to China in 1804, 
as used in the temple of Earth, consisted in carrying a 
huge porcelain cow about and afterwards breaking it in 
pieces, from the inside of which were taken numerous 
small cows which were distributed among the people. 2S 

Among the public officials of the Chinese, at one time, 
there was a secret supplicator whose duty it was by secret 
prayers and by sacrifices to ward off from the head of the 
sovereign dangers that threatened him. It was supposed 
that these dangers, if not always entirely averted, might 
be turned aside and so manipulated that whatever calam- 
ity was threatened would fall upon some person of inferior 
rank, or upon the crops in the field, instead of the sov- 
ereign. An author who died 237 B. C. 29 has recorded that 
a Duke King of Sung, when notified that a threaten- 
ing star was out of its place in the heavens and visible in 
a wrong constellation, by his astronomer, who intimated 
that the calamity to be expected to follow might be 
diverted, if he wished, upon one of his counselors, refused 
to have a sacrifice performed in his behalf. " The coun- 
selors," said the Duke, " are those who direct the state; 
to divert the evil upon them would not be well." He 
was then told it could be diverted upon the people. " If 
the people die," said the Duke, " over whom shall I 
reign? " He was asked to turn the impending evil upon 
the crops, but replied that if the year was bad the people 
would suffer and die of hunger, and if he saved his own 
life by slaying his people, who then would acknowledge 
him as a prince? The office of secret supplicator, it is 
said, was abolished in the Han dynasty by the emperor 
Wen in 166 B.C. 

28 " Roman Festivals," 72. 

29 See " Primitive Civilizations," ii. 37. 



82 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

Mr. William Crooke relates a method of perfecting the 
cotton by a species of imitative magic in India. When 
the cotton comes into flower parched rice is taken into the 
field on a Wednesday or a Friday. Some of it is thrown 
over the plants and the rest given to children. The cere- 
mony is supposed to cause the bolls of cotton to swell as 
the rice has by the parching. A kindred custom in Karnal 
is for the women, when the pods are open and ready for 
picking, to go round the field eating rice-milk, and spit the 
first mouthful on the field toward the west. 30 Sometimes 
a little patch is left untilled in the corner of the field for 
the field spirit as a refuge. Tree spirits exercise a power- 
ful influence over the products of the fields. The Roman 
shepherd who plucked the leaves of a tree in the sacred 
grove for his sick ewe acknowledged his trespass on the 
guardian spirit of the grove. However, " the displeasure 
of a spirit," observes Professor Granger, " is obviously 
of later growth than the belief that the tree was the seat 
of direct influence upon the lives of the people who lived 
in its neighborhood." 31 Negroes of the Gold Coast sac- 
rifice at the foot of tall trees, and they think if one of these 
trees were felled, all the fruits of the earth would perish. 
Certain trees in Sweden are not allowed to be cut down 
for fear of anger of the spirit dwelling in them. Idola- 
trous Israelites burned incense under oaks and poplars 
and elms because the shadow thereof was good. 32 Grove 
deities among the Mundaris were held responsible for the 
crops and were especially honored at agricultural festivals. 
In the Mundari villages everyone contributes a fowl, 
a pitcher of beer, and a handful of rue to the offerings 
made by the priest in the sacred grove. As already stated, 

80 " Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India," 383. 
81 " Worship of the Romans," 223. 
83 Hosea, iv. 13. 



MAKING PRODUCTIVE 83 

the Mundas sacrificed at the sowing of the rice. Again 
in June the local gods are propitiated that they may give 
their blessing to the crop. Again in July each cultivator 
sacrifices a fowl with mysterious rites. He strips off a 
wing and, inserting it in a cleft of bamboo, he sticks it 
in the rice field to act as a charm and stimulate the grain 
to maturity. 33 Similarly the Swedish peasant sticks a 
branch in each furrow of his cornfield to encourage an 
abundant yield at the harvest. Among the Kols of Chota 
Nagpur a special dance is held in which the women kneel 
and pat the ground with their hands in tune to music to 
stimulate the earth to be fertile. 

Pliny speaks of a certain herb which, buried at the four 
corners of a field, drives away starlings and sparrows. He 
is sure of the fact, but unable to name the plant. The same 
credulous author records, however, that corn was seen 
growing on the trees in the year in which Hannibal was 
vanquished, and that mildew will pass into branches of 
laurel placed in the ground and the crops be spared, both 
of which credulities are evidently phases of belief in the 
power of tree spirits. The same author says the ravages 
of mice in the crops may be prevented if the ashes of a 
weasel or cat are steeped in water and the water is thrown 
on the seed; or the water in which a cat has been boiled 
will answer the purpose. He refers to a letter from 
Archibius to King Antiochus as authority for a method 
of preventing injury to the corn by burying a bramble bug 
in a new earthen vessel in the middle of the cornfield. 
The skull of a beast of burden, the male only, set up in 
the garden, protected from caterpillars, which seemed to 
have been a grievous thing for the ancient Romans if we 
may judge from the numerous remedies to circumvent their 
work which have been preserved. Instead of the skull of 

33 " Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India," 373. 



84 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

the male beast, a river crab hung up in the middle of the 
garden had a similar effect, or if the plants were touched 
with slips of blood-red cornel. 34 A Syrian way of driv- 
ing out caterpillars from a garden is an application of the 
principle of sympathetic magic. A single caterpillar is 
taken by one of the girls who gather in the garden 
products. The insect is then bewailed and buried. 
Another of the girls is designated to be the mother of the 
insect, and is conducted to the place where the other insects 
are amidst great lamentation for her bereavement. The 
other insects will then disappear. 

A charm against the finger worm preserved in Teutonic 
myths, says : 

" God the Father afield did ride, 
Stoutly the hoe he plied, 
Stubbed up the worms outright, 
One was black, another white, 
The third worm, it was red ; 
Here lie the worms all dead." 

A piece of wood from a coffin that had been dug up 
from the grave, if concealed among the cabbages, kept 
away from them caterpillars. 35 

It will be remembered that the Philistines made as 
many golden images of mice as there were lords of the 
lands which the mice marred, and sent them out of the 
land in a new cart drawn by two milk cows, and so ban- 
ished the plague. 36 The Chams of Indo-China sacrifice 
to the " god-rat " when excessive numbers of vermin infest 
their fields. In Greece and Rome the skull of the ass, 
which was sacred to Priapus, was placed in gardens and 
orchards, to protect the fields from thieves. 37 A charm 

34 "Natural History," xviii. 45, 46, 70; xiv. 58. 

85 Grimm, 1248, 1784. 

36 1 Sam. iv. 18. 

37 D. G. Brinton in Journal of American Folk-Lore, iii. 20. 



MAKING PRODUCTIVE 85 

preserved by Sir Thomas Browne against dodder, tetter, 
and strangling weeds consisted in placing a chalked tile 
at the four corners and one in the middle of the field. 

The Israelites set up a serpent of gold upon a pole to 
stay the plague of serpents that overrun the land, 38 and 
in West Africa the serpent is still used as an amulet to 
protect the crops. 39 

Wonderful magical power was ascribed to a horse's 
head fixed upon a stake, by the Norsemen and the Teu- 
tons. They were thrown in the flames in the fires on mid- 
summer eve. The sacrificial use of the horse goes back 
to very ancient times. The Persians sacrificed it to 
Mithras, the giver of light and heat, the Greeks to the 
sun, which they thought swiftest of all the gods. 40 Mag- 
yar shepherds and gypsies set them up in barren fields to 
counteract the effect of witches,. Traces of the use of the 
horse in earlier times in magic and religion survive in fes- 
tivals of Christmas and other days. In a Christmas cere- 
mony in Wales the skull of a horse dressed up in ribbons 
was carried round on a pole by a man concealed under a 
white cloth. Similar ceremonies took place on Christmas 
Eve in the Isle of Thanet, and in Kent. 41 On the 1st 
of May, in Cornwall, the figure of a horse was carried 
through the streets by men, women, and children to a pool 
of water, where its head was ducked under and the water 
sprinkled on the bystanders. What was once believed for 
the welfare of land and people lives in sports and 
pastimes, and the merrymaking of holidays. 

Nature was thought not to be insensible to the imita- 
tion of her processes so that fertility might in that way 
be suggested or imparted to the fields. The Prince of 

88 Numbers xxi. 9. 

39 Elworthy's "Evil Eye," 316. 

40 Herodotus, i. 216; Pausanias, iii. 20. 

41 Dyer's " British Popular Customs," 472, 486. 



86 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

Neuwied saw, among the Minnatarees of. North America, 
a tall, strong woman pretend to bring up from her stomach 
a stalk of maize, and so make sure of a good crop for the 
year. By imitative measures, plants and trees could be 
influenced to bear fruit in due season and in abundance. 
Mexicans held a festival when the maize was fully grown 
and the ear formed, and the women wore their long hair 
unbound and shaking as they danced, that the tassel of the 
maize might grow in like profusion. Malays, when 
searching for camphor, eat their salt coarse, lest if it is 
pounded fine the camphor will be found also in fine 
grains. 42 

The danger from sorcery was ever present, and the crop 
might be conjured from one field to another. The charge 
was made against Caius Furius Cresinus that he raised 
larger crops from a smaller field than his neighbors could 
produce from larger holdings of land. He was brought 
before the magistrate upon a charge of conjuring the 
produce of his neighbors' fields into his own. The de- 
fendant, however, was able to convince the court that 
his greater success was the result of greater effort and 
superior skill, and the case against him was dismissed. 43 

Less fortunate was the trial of Patrick Lowrie, in 1605, 
in Scotland. He was convicted of abstracting for ten 
successive years " the substance and fissioune " from the 
corn in Bessie Sawer's field. 44 A crop more than usually 
good also foreboded evil in Scotland, from the belief that 
it was a " fey-crop," and betokened the death of the 
goodman. 45 

But it was asserted that if a woman by using a charm 
caused the increase of another's cows to come to hers, the 

""Malay Magic," 215. 

43 " Demonology and Witchcraft," Walter Scott, 82, note. 

44 " The Darker Superstitions of Scotland," John Graham Dalyell, 260. 

45 "An Echo of the Olden Time," Walter Gregor, 133. 



MAKING PRODUCTIVE 87 

charmed milk yielded but little butter. The curds were 
tougher; the butter was lighter in weight and paler in 
color. To protect from this injustice, amulets of the root 
of " groundsel " were resorted to in Scotland, and put in 
the cream. If the milk dishes were washed in a stream 
where there were trout, the substance of the cream might 
be taken away by the fish from the cows. This could be 
tested by pouring milk into the mouth of a live trout, 
which would at once curdle if it was part of the increase 
so taken away by the aforesaid trout. 46 

Witches were active on the eves of Midsummer Day 
and St. George's Day. Then they were wont to go out 
and cut chips from doors and gates of the farmyard and 
boil them in a milk pail, and in that way charm the milk 
from that farm. Their plans might be frustrated, how- 
ever, by carefully smearing the newly chipped places with 
mud. 47 

Bourke 48 gives a Lapland custom of the farmers' wives 
to circumvent the witches and make the butter come in 
spite of them. They pour fresh cow's milk upon human 
ordure, or into the privy. This renders the witches 
powerless. When the cows were bewitched and the quan- 
tity of butter was deficient, similar practices were some- 
times resorted to by the Germans. Human ordure was 
applied to the teats of the cows. Like customs were re- 
ported of the Africans by Sir Samuel Baker. A red-hot 
poker is plunged into the contents of the churn in Pennsyl- 
vania, which breaks the spell. An old woman's charm to 
make butter come, said to have been taught by a " learned 
churchman in Queen Marie's days, when the churchmen 
had more cunning and could teach people many a trick, 

46 " Pinkerton's Voyages," iii. 613. 

47 Ralston's " Songs of the Russians," 291, < ' 

43 " Scatalogic Rites," 84, 396, 



88 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

that our ministers nowadays know not," was to repeat 
three times the following: 

" Come butter, come, 
Come, butter, come, 
Peter stands at the gate, 
Waiting for a butter'd cake. 
Come, butter, come." 49 

Mr. Rhys reports a custom of the Celts of burning three 
puppies in a field to rid it of weeds, 50 which suggests a 
possible connection with the old Roman Robigalia. 

Young men and maids in the north of England used 
to walk in the cornfields on Palm Sunday, after receiving 
the sacrament, and bless the corn, 51 a manifestation of 
faith in the power of suggestion to nature, by symbol or 
emotion, akin to that implied in the crude saying that 
peppers will grow better if planted by a red-headed man 
or a high-tempered person. A story told by a negro of 
Southern Kentucky is given by a writer in the Journal of 
American Folk-Lore. 52 " My old woman and me," says 
he, " had a spat and I went right out and planted my pep- 
pers and they come right up." 

In Herrick's pretty lines, " Pray and Prosper," is 
voiced the seventeenth century faith in religious ceremonial 
in promoting agricultural prosperity : 

" First offer incense, then thy field and meads 
Shall smile and smell the better by thy beads. 
The spangling dew dregged o'er the grass shall be 
Turned all to mel and manna there for thee. 
Butter of amber, cream, and wine, and oil, 
Shall run as rivers all throughout thy soil. 
Would'st thou to sincere silver turn thy mould, 
Pray once ; twice pray, and turn thy ground to gold." 

49 Bran'd's " Antiquities," 750. 

G0 " Folk-Lore, Welsh and Manx," i. 307. 

51 " British Popular Customs," 127. 

62 Vol. xiv. 33. 



MAKING PRODUCTIVE 89 

In one of the Eclogues of Barnaby Googe, who lived 
in the century before Herrick, belief in the favorable in- 
fluence of certain constellations over vegetation is em- 
phasized: 

" Whereas the Ram doth cause to spring, 
Eche herbe and floure in felde, 
And forceth ground (yet spoyld of grene 
Did lye,) newe grene to yelde." 

In an old Aryan hymn the hostile attitude of the evil 
ones is inferred towards the farmer's vocation: 

" When the corn grows then the demons hiss ; 
When the shoots sprout, then the demons cough; 
When the stalks rise, then the demons weep ; 
When the thick ears come, then the demons fly." B3 

A custom of the Isle of Lewis is related by Brand. 54 
At Hallow-tide they go to the church of St. Mulvay, each 
family carrying provisions and a peck of malt which is 
brewed into ale. One of the number is selected to wade 
into the sea up to his middle, carrying in his hand a cup 
of ale for the sea god, Shony. Standing with the ale in 
his hand, he loudly cries, " Shony, I give you this sup of 
ale, hoping that you will be so kind as to send us plenty of 
sea-ware for enriching our ground for the ensuing year." 
Then the night is spent in the fields in singing and dancing. 

Swinging, in the life of modern civilization a harmless 
pastime of outdoor festivities, is not unknown as a bene- 
fical rite performed in the interest of good husbandry. It 
made the crops grow tall, and drove away harmful influ- 
ences. Old women rocked to and fro among the Dyaks, 
on a swing suspended from the rafters, to prevent the 
rice crop from rotting away. Between Easter and St. 

B3 " Anthropology," E. B. Tylor, 383. 
54 " Antiquities," 213. 



9 o MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

John's Day the Lettish peasant industriously devoted his 
leisure hours to swinging, for the higher he went the 
taller the flax grew. Similar customs were not unknown 
to the Athenians, nor are they in modern Greece and 
Italy. Before sunrise, clad in his shirt, the Esthonian 
peasant goes into his garden and swings his scythe over 
his cabbages when they curl up their leaves and will not 
properly head. By swinging, evil influences were expelled, 
diseases were driven away, and the air was purged after 
hanging or a suicide. Mr. Frazer suggests that swing- 
ing may have been originally a charm intended to " kin- 
dle and speed afresh on its heavenly road the golden swing 
in the sky." 55 

55 " The Golden Bough," ii. 453. 



CHAPTER VI 

MAKING THE WEATHER 

" S'i! pleut le jour de Saint Medard 
II pleut quarante jours plus tard; 
S'il pleut le jour de Saint Gervais et de Saint Protais 
II pleut quarante jours apres." 

In the literature of weather lore one finds that the 
power of controlling the elements is attributed to deities 
or devils, as the case may be, and the honors are about 
equally divided between them. In climates where wet 
seasons prevail and destructive storms are frequent, among 
people constantly anticipating supernatural interference in 
all the concerns of life, it could hardly be otherwise than 
that they would recognize diabolical agencies as responsi- 
ble for them, and on the contrary, in parched and desert 
lands where rain seldom falls and is always welcome, 
the hand of some benevolent power could easily be con- 
ceived as showering blessings upon them in recognition of 
faithful service, or in answer to their petitions. 

" Our morn and evening dew — 
The sacrament 
That maketh all things new — 
From heaven is sent; 

" And thither, ne'er in vain, 
We look for aid, 
To find the punctual rain 
Or sun or shade." 1 

In one of the oldest dramas of the Greeks the Furies 

'John B. Tabb. 

9i 



92 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

are represented as taking their revenge by destroying the 
crops by distilling the pestilential drop : 

" Where'er it falls, nor fruit around, 
Nor leaf shall grace the blasted ground." 

Marcus Antoninus has preserved a prayer of the 
Athenians for rain : 

" Rain, rain, O dear Zeus, down on the plowed fields of the Athenians 
and on the plains." a 

That prayers to the deities availed to prevent or cause 
rains and sunshine, has been the faith of the civilized and 
the uncivilized. Sometimes the prayers were accompanied 
with offerings and sacrifices, and frequently magical rites 
have been performed in connection with them. 

A petition of the Esthonians used in the seventeenth 
century, as given by Grimm, reads: " Dear Thunder, we 
offer to thee an ox that hath two horns and four cloven 
hoofs, we would pray thee for our plowing and sowing, 
that our straw be copper-red, our grain be golden yellow. 
Push elsewhither all the thick black clouds, over great fens, 
high forests and wildernesses. But unto us plowers and 
sowers give a fruitful season and sweet rain. Holy Thun- 
der guard our seedfield that it bear good straw below, 
good ears above, and good grain within." 3 

Samoans thought the rain god, Saato, controlled the 
supply of moisture from the clouds. Offerings of cooked 
taro and fish were made to his parents, Fongo and Toafa, 
who were represented by two oblong, smooth stones, upon 
which the offerings were placed. These were accompanied 
with prayers for fine weather without rain. He who re- 

2 Trans, of George Long, v. 7. 
8 " Teutonic Mythology," 176. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 93 

fused to make the proper offerings to the deities was 
looked upon with disfavor and was blamed and punished 
in case of rain. Sometimes a yam was offered to them, 
which was supposed to incline them favorably to the 
growth of the crop, especially in times of scarcity. 4 

Animals are supposed to be more sensitive to changes 
in the atmosphere and to perceive those about to take 
place. It is an old belief that by watching their appear- 
ance and movements successful prognostications of the 
weather can be made. Spofford's " Farmer's Almanac " 
for 1840 gives the following indications to be observed: 
Before storms kine and sheep assemble in one corner of 
the field and turn their heads in the direction of the wind, 
that is from whence it blows. Swine appear uneasy and 
rub in the dust, and so do cocks and hens, but dogs grow 
sleepy and dull and lay before the fire. Predictions of the 
weather founded on the movements of animals are still in 
vogue, and often regarded with confidence. In rural dis- 
tricts it is a common thing to hear in daily conversation 
some guess as to the character of the day, or of the days 
to come, from some observed movement of the cows in 
the pasture. Cattle eating with unusual greed denotes, in 
some localities, foul weather. In others, if they lie about 
the barn in the morning and show no disposition to feed 
it is a sign of rain. It is an old saying that when oxen 
hold up their heads and snuffle the air, or lick their hoofs, 
or when asses or mules rub their ears often, rainy weather 
is indicated. The savage bite of a flea or the croak of the 
frogs is a sure sign of it. This advice of a country vicar 
to his parishioners is given in an old work: "There is, 
dearly beloved, a certaine familiar beast amongst you 
called a hogge; see you not how toward a storme or tem- 
pest it crieth evermore, Ourgh, Ourgh? So must you like- 

4 " Samoa," George Turner, 25. 



94 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

wise in all your eminent troubles and dangers, say to your- 
selves, Lourghd, Lourghd, help me." 5 

An English pastoral by John Gay describes Cloddipole, 
" the wisest lout of all the neighboring plain," from whom 
they learned to read the skies, 

" To know when hail will fall or winds arise. 
He taught us erst the heifer's tail to view, 
When stuck aloft, that showers would straight ensue; 
He first that useful secret did explain, 
That pricking corns foretold the gathering rain ; 
When swallows fleet soar high and float in air, 
He told us that the welkin would be clear." 

The hedgehog was at one time generally credited with 
being a good natural weather prophet. This is alluded to 
in many old writings in both verse and prose. 

" The hedgehogge hath a quicke thorned garment, 
That on his backe doth serue him for defence; 
He can presage the winds incontinent, 
And hath good knowledge in the difference 
Between the southerne and the northerne wind. 
These virtues are allotted him by kind, 
Whereon in Constantinople, that great city, 
A merchant in his garden gaue one nourishment; 
By which he knew that winds true certainty, 
Because the hedgehog gaue him just presagement." 8 

In the " Garden of the Muses," written in 1600, are 
similar lines : 

" As hedgehogs doo foresee ensuinge stormes, 
So wise men are for fortune prepared." 

" Poor Richard's Almanac," in the eighteenth century, 
says of the animal as a weather predictor: 

6 Brand, 691. 

" Natural History Lore and Legend," F. Edward Hulme, quoting from 
" Love's Martyr." 



MAKING THE WEATHER 95 

" If by some secret art the hedgehog know, 
So long before, which way the winds will blow, 
She has an art which many a person lacks, 
That thinks himself fit to make almanacks." 

The halcyon, or kingfisher, was also from early times 
believed to know much about the impending winds and 
storms, and to be able to make it known by its actions, 
dead or alive, for a dead kingfisher was supposed, 
if suspended from the roof, to always turn its breast 
in the direction from which the wind blows. Old 
writers without questioning have made the assertion, 
and apparently have copied one from another. Shake- 
speare speaks in " King Lear " of the halcyon beaks 
that turn with every gale; and "Into what corner 
peers my halcyon's bill? " says Christopher Marlowe. 
Sir Thomas Browne, while conceding that " sundry ani- 
mals " have a kind of " naturall meteorology," or in- 
nate " praesention bothe of winde and weather," and as- 
serting that the hedgehog's " praesention of winds " is such 
that it stops the northern and southern hole of its nest 
according to its " prenotion of the winds ensuing," yet 
took upon himself to test by actual experiments the value 
of the dead kingfisher as a weathervane, and rejects the 
theory entirely. It was an old Greek fable that seven 
days before the shortest day in the year and seven days 
after, while the halcyon was breeding, there always 
prevailed calms at sea, 7 and for many centuries it was ac- 
cepted as a fact that while young kingfishers were hatch- 
ing a calm fell upon all things for fourteen days. 

" While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave," 

wrote Milton in the beautiful " Hymn on the Nativity." 
Similar references are found in the writings of Drayton 

7 See " The Eagle's Nest, The Story of the Halcyon," by John Ruskin. 



96 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

and Dryden. In " The Song of Lycidas," by Theocritus, 
the halcyons that lull the waves are the dearest to the 
green-haired mermaids of all the birds that take their 
prey from the salt sea. One of the Grecian legends makes 
Halcyone a Pleiad who was beloved by the sea god Po- 
seidon, and in another legend she is the daughter of iEolus, 
king of the winds. This relationship with the ruler of the 
winds and the sea makes it clear from what source must 
have sprung the reputed power of the bird over the waves 
and to foretell the winds, and from the well-known habits 
of the bird of feeding on fish and making its nest of their 
bones, has come the legend of its connection with the god 
of the deep. 

Thomas Tusser, who was born about 15 15, in his book 
of " Good Husbandry," has many references to the signs 
which the farmer should observe as indicative of fair or 
foul weather: 

" It is an ill wind turns none to godd, 
North winds send hail, south winds bring rain." 

The West as a father, all goodness doth bring, 
The East, a forbearer, no manner of thing; 
The South, as unkind, draweth sickness too near; 
The North, as a friend, maketh all again clear." 

Weather prophets in Southern Kentucky say: 

"Wind from the south, hook in the mouth; 

Wind from the east, bite the least; 

Wind from the north, further off; 

Wind from the west, bite the best." 8 

The days associated with some of the saints, from a 
meteorological point of view, are regarded as critical. It 
is the case with June 8th, or Saint Medard's Day, in 
France, and with June 19th, the day of St. Gervais and 

8 Journal of American Folk-Lore, xiv. 37. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 97 

St. Protais. It is a familiar prognostication that if it rain 
on St. Swithin's Day, July 15 th, it will rain for forty days 
in succession. The old proverb is accounted for in popu- 
lar tradition by a legend of the saint, who. was probably 
never canonized, but is known as the weeping St. Swithin. 

" This Swithin was a saint, I trow, 
And Winchester's Bishop also." 

" Poor Robin's Almanac " for 1697 says of July: 

"In this month is St. Swithin's Day; 
On which, if that it rain, they say 
Full forty days after it will, 
Of more or less, some rain distill." 

It is expressed by Gay in lines more emphatic. After 
a rainy feast of the saint, 

• 

" Twice twenty days shall clouds their fleeces drain, 
And wash the pavements with incessant rain." 

The proverb has also been adapted to a change of con- 
ditions, and if the day be fair, 

" For forty days 'twill rain na mair." 

On the death of the Bishop of Winchester, about 866, 
it is said by his request he was buried just outside the 
church porch, exposed to the drippings of the eaves over- 
head, and so that the worshipers might regularly walk 
over his grave. The legend is that when an attempt was 
made, about a century later, to move his body within the 
cathedral, a heavy downpour of rain made it necessary to 
postpone it. Thirty-nine successive days thereafter they 
made attempts to move the remains, but the rain prevented, 
and on the fortieth day they abandoned it altogether as 
a heretical and blasphemous design, and erected a chapel 



98 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

over his grave, at which many miracles have been per- 
formed. Professor Earle of Oxford University, how- 
ever, has carefully examined the earliest Saxon manu- 
scripts containing the most authentic account of the saint's 
life, and showed that the weather on the occasion of the 
disinterment of the body of the Bishop was favorable, 
that no phenomenon took place, and that the elements did 
not conspire, as the legend says, to prevent its removal 
into the church. The suggestion is made by Professor 
Earle, in explanation of the origin of the common belief 
about the saint, that in one particular year, about the 
time of this feast, the rainy constellations of Praesepe and 
Avelli arose cosmically, and caused rain to fall for more 
than a month together. 9 It may be suggested, perhaps 
with equal plausibility, that July 15th had been identified 
as a critical period of the season by pagan agriculturists, 
or worshipers, long before the days of the Bishop of 
Winchester. 

There is a saying in Martinique that it always rains on 
Good Friday, because then the sky weeps for the death 
of the Saviour. Tradition is that this rain will not evap- 
orate if caught in a vessel, and it is said to cure all 
diseases. 10 

The belief that both storm and sunshine could be arti- 
ficially produced is as old as history, and it is doubtful 
if there is any part of the earth where it has not prevailed 
to some extent. In the sacred books of the ancient Egyp- 
tians were prescribed formulas for making the sun to 
shine. The monster Apep, or Apepi, was the enemy of the 
sun god Ra. There were certain priests in the temple of 
the god at Thebes whose duty it was to perform services 
for the assistance of the god in overcoming the monster. 

9 " Manners, Customs and Observances," Leopold Wagner, 265. 
10 " Two Years in the French West Indies," Lafcadio Hearn, 232. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 99 

Minute directions were given for conducting the ceremon- 
ies and repeating the litanies. A figure of the monster 
was drawn in green color on new papyrus, and a wax 
image of him with his name cut and inlaid with green 
color. The figure and image were placed in a fire of 
khesau grass and burnt. They were to be spit upon every 
hour. When tempests threatened in the east of the sky 
at the setting of Ra, the progress of the storm was stayed 
by observing the instructions. If by day the clouds ob- 
scured the sun it was again made bright by performing the 
rite. Images were also made of all the fiends in the train 
of Apep. Their names were written on papyrus, which 
was thrown to the ground, kicked with the left foot, and 
pierced with a stone spear, 11 after which it was burned, 
and the clouds and the lightning fled and the sky became 
clear and bright again. One is startled to find these elab- 
orate rituals for the practice of magical arts in full force 
among the Egyptians at a time when the people had 
reached their highest position in enlightenment and power, 
and at a period to which even now we look back with won- 
der and admiration at their marvelous achievements. But 
perhaps we can better comprehend the mystery of it if we 
try to realize how far away in thought and life are the 
great masses of all the highest civilizations of the twen- 
tieth century from its master minds. For all the revela- 
tions of time and patient investigation, how potent still 
are antiquated prejudices and hoary traditions, and how 
steadfastly they hold their own in dominating and shaping 
our daily lives', actions, and beliefs ! 

That the sun could be controlled and hastened or stayed 
in its course was believed by the Greeks in the time of 
Homer, for Athene held the night in the west and stayed 
the golden-throned Dawn for the benefit of Ulysses, and 

n " Egyptian Magic," E. A. Wallis Budge, 83-84. 

LOFC 



ioo MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

at the death of Patroklos the ox-eyed Hera sent down 
the sun " unwillingly into the streams of Ocean," to save 
the Greeks. 12 The same was true of the Israelites, for, 
at the command of Joshua, the sun stood still in the midst 
of the sky, and delayed to go down almost a whole day : 

" Sun, stand thou still over Gibeon ! 
And thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon! 
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, 
Until the nation had avenged itself on its enemies." M 

The Fijis thought to entangle the sun in the reeds by 
growing a patch of reeds on the top of the hills. The 
Peruvians stretched nets to capture the sunshine. To 
make the sun go down faster the Australian throws sand 
in the air and blows with his mouth towards the sun. One 
of the methods recorded of the old Teutons for obtaining 
fair weather was to build into a wall a peck of barley 
and a bowl of water, or a live cock. 14 

Fogs were conjured away by the magicians among the 
Queen Charlotte Islanders. If the sunshine was with- 
held, when the Comanche Indians desired it, to conciliate 
the demons responsible for it they whipped a slave, or 
flayed him alive. 15 Professor Warde Fowler says he has 
personally known the church bells to be rung at Zermatt 
to stop the continuous downpour of rain in the hay- 
harvest. 16 

Professor Frazer calls attention to the fact 17 that cere- 
monies for the prevention of rain in some countries are 
the antithises of those used in others for producing it. 

12 Odyssey, xxiii. 243 ; Iliad, xviii. 240. 

13 Joshua, x. 13, Polychrome edition, W. H. Bennett 

14 Grimm, 1142, 1646. 

15 " Native Races," i. 171, 520. 
16 " Roman Festivals," 40, note. 
""The Golden Bough," i. 93. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 101 

When a man wishes to give a feast during the rainy season 
in Java he goes to the weather doctor and employs him 
to prop up the clouds. If he undertakes the commission 
he observes a fast, eats his food dry, and in no case touches 
water. Neither the host nor his servants, during the feast, 
may bathe or wash their clothes, and they must observe 
chastity. On the contrary, an Indian sage will touch 
water so many times a day regularly, and live in the forest 
without shelter to stimulate the clouds. The dark color 
of the rain clouds is simulated by various devices. Among 
the Matabele, the gall of a black ox is supposed to be 
effectual. Tribes of the Orinoco region burn the disin- 
terred bones of their deceased relations and scatter the 
ashes to the winds to make the clouds. 

Though all primitive customs for producing rain go 
back to a period when there was no actual knowledge of 
the causes of the rainfall, they are seldom discontinued, 
and do not lose their hold upon the people until long after 
the more enlightened have ceased to take any interest in 
them. 

According to the book of Dr. Hartlieb, the Duke of 
Albrecht's physician in the fifteenth century, the making 
of hail and showers was one of those arts to be acquired 
by giving one's self to the devil, denying God, the holy 
baptism, and the Christian graces, and was only practiced 
by old wives and the forsaken of God. Tertullan, how- 
ever, complained because when in time of drouth Chris- 
tians by prayers and mortifications had extorted rain 
from God, the credit was given to sacrifices offered to 
Jupiter. 18 

Belief that storms could be brought on by evil spirits 
and devils succeeded the older one that storms were sent 
as punishments by deities to those who served other gods. 

18 Lea's "Inquisition," iii. 393. 



102 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

Jahveh, through the hand of Moses, sent hail in all the 
land of Egypt " upon man, and upon beast, and upon 
every herb of the field," and the thunders and rain and 
hail only ceased at the intercession of Moses. 19 Whether 
the record tells the story of an actual historical event or 
not is immaterial, for if it is only a tradition of the Israel- 
ites, it is unquestionable authority for the existence of such 
a belief among the people at the time it was written. 

Dante, in a 'passage in " Purgatory," confirms the opin- 
ion of Dr. Hartlieb, when he writes of one: 

" He joined that evil will, which aye seeks evil, 
To intellect, and moved the mist and wind 
By means of power which his own nature gave." *° 

Burton says that aerial spirits or devils caused tempests, 
thunder, and lightnings, and destroyed men and beasts. 
They dwelt for the most part in the air. On the death 
of a suicide they were likely to appear and manifest their 
rejoicing in a whirlwind or tempestuous storm. 21 A like 
sentiment is expressed in the lines of Pope : 

"Roused by the prince of the air, the whirlwinds sweep the surge." 22 

According to the confession of Isabell Gowdie, in 1662, 
she raised a storm by dipping a rag in water and then 
beating it on a stone three times in the name of Satan, and 
saying : 

" I knock this rag upon this stone 
To raise the wind in the divill's name, 
It shall not lye till. I please againe." 

Drying the rag with another ceremony, she conjured the 

10 Exodus ix. 22, 23. 

20 Longfellow's Trans., canto v. 

21 " Anatomy of Melancholy," 123. 

22 " Epistle," iii. 353. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 103 

storm away again. 23 Dipping the rag in water betrays the 
likeness of the ceremony to the most common of all rain 
charms. 

Mimicking the rain was expected to produce it. Among 
the varying ceremonies of many peoples are found some 
common characteristics, however. The waters were stirred. 
According to German records of the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries, witches assembled in crowds by water 
brooks or lakes and flogged the water with rods till a fog 
rose and thickened into black clouds. On these clouds the 
witches are borne up, and they guide the clouds to the 
places where they mean to work mischief. A legend is 
told of a violent storm which lasted until a huntsman on 
the highway, suspecting that it was the work of a witch, 
loaded his gun with a consecrated bullet and fired into the 
middle of the darkest cloud, when out of it a naked female 
fell dead, and the storm blew over in a moment. In Car- 
inthia the people shoot at storm clouds to scare away the 
evil spirits that hold council in them. In some parts of 
France whole families are suspected of having the power 
of raising a storm, it being hereditary with them. The 
Peruvians had a rain goddess who sat in the sky with a 
pitcher of water ready to pour it out at the right time. If 
she delayed it too long, her brother smashed the pitcher 
to pieces with thunder and lightning. When the corn is 
endangered by drought, the children of the Slavs sing a 
song to Father Luga, imploring him to climb into heaven, 
open its doors, and send down rain from above, that well 
the rye may grow. That storms could be both attracted 
and repelled by songs was believed in ancient times, and 
is referred to by both Seneca and Pliny. This charm was 
formerly used on the Rhine to bring on showers : A little 
nude girl was led outside the town, where she had to dig 

23 " Darker Superstitions of Scotland," J. G. Dalyell, 248. 



104 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

henbane with the little finger of her right hand and tie it to 
the little toe of her right foot ; she was then conducted by 
the other maidens to the nearest river and splashed with 
water. Sometimes a girl called the dodo was stripped 
and wrapped with grass and herbs and flowers and escorted 
from house to house. At each house a ring was formed, in 
the middle of which the little girl danced and whirled while 
the goodwife came out and emptied a bucket of water over 
her, and her companions sang : 

" To God doth our dodo call, 
That dewy rain may fall, 
And drench the diggers all, 
The workers great and small, 
Even those in house and stall." 

The children in Greece, when it has not rained for 
several weeks, sometimes select one of their number, eight 
to ten years old, usually a poor orphan, who is stripped 
from head to foot and decked with herbs and flowers. 
The other children lead her around the village and sing 
hymns ; every housewife throws a pail of water over her, 
and gives the children a small piece of money. 24 

The huntsmen of the Celts dipped water with their 
horns from a certain fountain and poured it upon the 
stones to cause the rain clouds to rise and refresh the 
lands. A religious ceremony was substituted in later 
times. Amid the chanting of songs and pealing of bells, 
led by the clergy, the parishioners with great banners 
borne in front of them walked to the spring, and the leader 
dipped his foot crosswise in the fountain ; it was considered 
certain that rain would fall before the homeward march 
was completed. In Spain an image of the Virgin in 
mourning is escorted through the village to procure rain. 

24 Grimm, 593, 594; "Songs of the Russians," 327. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 105 

Other places obtain needed showers by carrying about 
images of the saints. Chroniclers mention a procession 
of priests and people, in the Liege country, in the middle 
of the thirteenth century, which made three trials and 
failed to obtain rain, because in calling upon all the 
saints they omitted to call upon the Mother of God. 
Roman women with disheveled hair prayed Jupiter 
for rain. In a village in Russia three men used to 
climb up the fir trees in a sacred grove and drum with a 
hammer on a kettle to imitate thunder, and knock fire- 
brands together to imitate lightning, and with a bunch of 
twigs sprinkle water on all sides. The Omaha Indians 
filled a large vessel with water and danced around it, one 
of them drinking of it and spirting it into the air to imitate 
and invite the rain. Yakima Indians of Washington hold 
their medicine men responsible for the weather. In the 
winter of 1890 and 1891 medicine men were burned at 
the stake and shot in the snowdrifts because the snow fell 
so deep and continued so long upon the ground. 25 

Sometimes certain stones are preserved as rain charms 
or rain gods, and in drouth they are dipped in water or 
sprinkled. In a Samoan village the priest carried the rain- 
making stone and dipped it in the stream. In Navarro 
the image of St. Peter was taken to a river, where some 
prayed to him for rain and others ducked his image in the 
water. In New Caledonia rain makers blackened them- 
selves all over, probably to imitate the rain cloud, and 
dug up the body of some deceased person, took the bones 
to a cave, jointed them, and hung the skeleton over some 
taro leaves. In the Caucasian province of Georgia, mar- 
riageable girls are yoked in couples with an ox-yoke, and 
with the priest holding the reins, they wade or are driven 
through rivers and puddles and marshes, praying, scream- 

25 New York Times, September 20, 1903. 



106 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

ing, weeping, and laughing. In India, sometimes a plow is 
dragged across the field by naked women to bring rain. 
The Peruvians set a black sheep in the field, poured chica 
over it, and gave it nothing to eat till it rained. The Tim- 
orese sacrificed a black pig for rain, and a white or red 
one for sunshine. Splashing a black cat in the water to 
darken the sky like rain clouds was practiced in Sumatra, 
A Langlat Malay told Mr. Skeat as follows: " If a Malay 
woman puts upon her head an inverted earthenware pan, 
and then, setting it upon the ground, fills it with water 
and washes the cat in it until the latter is more than half 
drowned, heavy rain will certainly ensue." 26 

Charms were also recited to stop the downfall of the 
rain when the flood was likely to bring serious conse- 
quences. The following is given by Mr. Skeat as found 
among the Malays : 

"Though the stem of the Meranti tree rocks to and fro (in the storm), 
Let the Yam leaves be as thick as possible, 
That rain and tempest may come to naught." 

A song of the Russians for bringing showers says: 

" Pour, O rain, 
Over the grandmother's rye, 
Over the grandfather's wheat, 

Over the girl's flax, 

Pour in bucketsful." 

A pledge is offered if the prayer of the song is answered : 

" Dear rain, dear rairi, 
I will cook thee some barshch (soup), 
I will put it in an oak." 27 

Mr. Rodd gives the following song as sung in Thessaly 

20 "Malay Magic," 108; see "The Golden Bough," i. 106-111. 

21 Ralston's " Songs of the Russians," 227. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 107 

and Macedonia, in the charm already referred to, by a pro- 
cession of girls going from door to door, headed by an 
orphan girl stripped and clothed with leaves : 

" Let it rain a shower, Lord, 
A shower of gentle rain ; 
Let them sprout and let them flower, 
Give the world their increase, 
Growing corn and cotton plant, 
Every herb that is athirst! 
Give us, give us water, 
Corn in heaped abundance, 
Let each ear fill a bushel, 
And every vine a cask." 28 

The ceremonial prayers of the Hopi Indians for rain 
are accompanied with the pouring of water into a bowl, 
or the concerted spitting of the spectators, typifying the 
falling showers. Zigzag symbols of lightning which ac- 
companies the rain are conceived as the cause of it, and 
therefore used to decorate the altars of their rain gods. 
In mimic storms effigies of the great serpent, personating 
the lightning, knock over the hills of corn in symbolic corn- 
fields, the imitation of the storm and its effects being sup- 
posed to influence the sky god in bringing about the de- 
sired result. 29 The use of serpents and figures of them in 
rain charms is common, and is probably suggested by their 
fancied resemblance to the play of the lightning. There 
was a German custom of hanging up a snake in the direc- 
tion from which they wished the wind to come, which was 
expected to bring the rain. One of the signs believed trust- 
worthy in the regions of the Cumberland Mountains, in 
East Tennessee, is that if a snake is killed and stretched out 
upon the fence or hung up in trees it will bring on rain. 30 
In China processions wind through the narrow lanes bear- 

23 " Customs and Lore of Modern Greece," 133. 
20 Journal of American Folk-Lore, xv. 20. 
30 Ibid. xiv. 207. 



108 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

ing on their shoulders silver images of the dragon king to 
bring on rain. 31 Reptiles and beasts of the field were 
gathered by the Mayas in the month of Mac, in honor 
of the Chacs, the gods of the cornfields, and to secure rain 
they were taken to the church or temple where the priests 
were assembled, each having a jug of water by his side. 
A bundle of wood with incense was burned as the hearts 
of the victims were torn out and flung into the flames, 
after wl.ich the jugs were emptied in subduing the fire. 
The Otomis of Michoacan sacrificed a virgin on the top 
of a high hill to appease the anger of the rain gods when 
they withheld the showers. In the ancient city of Chichen 
ltza was an immense pit surrounded by a thick grove. A 
well of water was at the bottom of the pit, with a circular 
stairway cut in the rock descending to the edge of it. An 
altar stood on the brink of the pit, on which sacrifices were 
made when the crops were threatened with damage be- 
cause of lack of rain. Tradition is that animals were 
offered at first, and in later times human beings were low- 
ered into the well with religious rites. The bodies were 
afterwards drawn up and buried in the grove. 

The cross was used by native Mexicans as a symbol of 
rain, or of the winds which brought the rain. Altars were 
erected in the form of a cross around the wells and water 
sources. It was an emblem of the god of the winds. 
Chalshiuitlioue, the sister of the rain gods, bore in her 
hands a cross-shaped vessel. A cross of lime and stone ten 
spans in height was the central figure of the great temple 
of Cozumel, at which the Nahuas and Mayas prayed for 
rain while offering gifts and sacrifices. An aged Indian 
was chosen in each village among the natives of Califor- 
nia, upon whom devolved the duty of getting rain when 
needed, and of procuring favorable weather at the har- 

81 "Lore of Cathay," 166. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 109 

vesting sacrifices, and the first fruits of crops and game 
were offered to him. Each morning the Grand Natchez 
of Florida came out of his tent and saluted the four points 
of the compass, took his station upon a rock and waited for 
the appearance of the sun, at which he waved his hand and 
pointed out the path which should be followed from the 
rising to the setting, invoking him to do his duty and 
neither stop nor linger. 32 

Bobowissi was the Gold Coast god who was lord of 
thunder and lightning. He manifested his displeasure by 
storms and tornadoes and torrents of rain. He was the 
blower of clouds. His name was compounded of words 
that signified the cloud and to blow. His dwelling place 
was in a conical hill which the Portuguese named Devil's 
Hill, devil being in those days, says Major Ellis, the term 
applied to other than Christian deities. Human victims 
were sacrificed to this god formerly, and his image washed 
with their blood. 33 

In the Panjab village girls pour down the back of an 
old woman, as she passes, cow dung dissolved in water, as 
a rain charm. Another charm used in some parts of India 
is to paint with cow dung the figures of Megla, lord of 
rains, and of Indra, with heads down and legs or heels up. 
Placing the gods in this uncomfortable position is believed 
to induce them to send rain, or to compel them to do so. 
Again, a blacksmith's anvil is thrown in a well. The lat- 
ter is evidently a species of imitative magic, the well typi- 
fying the rain, and the noise of the anvil the sound of 
thunder. 34 According to Roman annals, says Pliny, 
thunder storms might be compelled, as had formerly been 
done on various occasions, as when one was invoked by the 

33 " Native Races," ii. 692, 703 ; iii. 447, 470 ; " Myths of the New World," 
114; "Primitive Folk," 225. 

33 "The Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast," 22. 

34 " Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India," W. Crooke, 44. 



no MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

city of Volsinium when the territory was once laid waste 
by a monster, and on one occasion by King Porsenna. 
According to L. Piso, it had frequently been done before 
the time of Numa. Tullius Hostilius attempted it, but 
failing to perform properly the ceremonies, he was him- 
self struck with lightning. Pliny records these incidents, 
but was apparently not overconfident in the truth of them, 
as he says that opinions entertained depend upon the dis- 
positions of different people. 35 The same writer says 
hailstorms, whirlwinds, and lightning are scared away by 
a naked menstruous woman, and a storm at sea may be 
lulled by her. 36 

Monks of Iona, in order to obtain a supply of rain, 
thrice shook in the air the tunic in which their St. Columba 
expired, while at the same time they read from the 
books which he wrote. Abundance of rain fell and 
a luxuriant harvest followed, as the biographer of St. 
Adomnanus testifies from personal knowledge, having 
been an eyewitness. To secure rain, a living ass, after 
receiving the consecrated host, was buried in the portal of 
a church in Italy, and a deluge followed. 37 The Rev- 
erend John Batchelor describes a method of bringing rain 
which was witnessed by himself among the Ainu. A dog, 
dressed up in most fantastic fashion, was led about the 
garden, amidst music and laughter, and a heavy downfall 
of rain followed the same night. Other ceremonies of the 
Ainu are mentioned. An appointed rain maker offered 
prayers to the goddess of rivers and springs, and libations 
of wine were poured out and drank, or a company of them 
marched to the river and each man washed his tobacco box 
and pipe in the running water. They bring warm, fine 

35 " Natural History," ii. 53. 

30 Ibid, xxviii. 23. 

3 ' " Darker Superstitions of Scotland," 190, 251. 



MAKING THE WEATHER in 

weather by using convolvulus roots, which are spitted and 
placed near the fire on the hearth. 38 A method used in 
Bengal to make it rain is to deluge the image of the god 
Rudradeva in the temple. All the outlets are closed, and 
hundreds or more Brahmans pour water over the image 
till it is immersed up to the chin. When the water reaches 
that point it will always rain if the charm works favor- 
ably. Brahmans sometimes stand in the river and recite 
prayers to the god Varuna. If this fails to bring good 
results, it is attributed to a lack of piety in the officiating 
Brahmans. 39 Children of the Roumanians still throw 
clay images into the river to bring rain in a dry season. 
In 1894, two boys, aged six and fourteen, threw a child 
into the water and drowned it, for which the elder was 
sentenced to two years' imprisonment. They offered for 
a defense the necessity of it. The effects of the lack of 
rain were so great that the drought must be broken in some 
way, and as they had no clay figure to use they drowned 
the child. 40 

A basketful of meal and a pot of beer are offered by 
natives of Lake Nyassa to the supreme deity for rain. 
The meal is dropped by handfuls by the priestess on the 
ground as she cries: " Hear thou, O God, and send rain," 
while the assembled people clap their hands and respond 
softly: "Hear thou, O God." 

Among the Thompson River Indians the Great Chief, 
or as he was called, the Old Man, or the Big Mystery, was 
believed to be gifted in magic above all others. He was 
the maker of rain and snow, which descended from the 
upper regions. When it rained they said he urinated. 
The Central Eskimo believe rain is the urine of a deity. 

38 " The Ainu and their Folk-Lore," 334. 

39 " Folk-Lore," vol. ix. 278. 

""Worship of the Romans," Frank Granger, 156. 



ii2 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

The Kamtchatkans think rain is the urine of Bilutschi, 
one of their gods, and his genii, after voiding which he 
puts on a new dress with fringes of red seal hair and col- 
ored strips of leather, and these represent the original 
rainbow. 41 

The biblical story of Elijah and Ahab 42 is an interesting 
study in connection with rain-making ceremonies. Sore 
famine had followed the scarcity of rain in Samaria. The 
first verse in the chapter indicates that it was expected that 
rain would follow the visit of the prophet to the rebel- 
lious and wicked Ahab. To make the test of power pro- 
posed by Elijah the prophets of Baal were gathered at 
Carmel. The bullocks were slaughtered and piled upon 
the wood. The prophets danced upon the altar, and cut 
and slashed themselves, and cried aloud in vain, till the 
blood gushed from them, and the hour for the evening 
sacrifice arrived. Then Elijah took twelve stones, built 
an altar, leaving a trench about it to contain two measures 
of seed, cut his bullock in pieces and laid him on the wood, 
and poured upon it four barrels of water at three separate 
times, and the fire fell, consuming the wood and stones and 
dust, licking up the water in the trench. The ceremony 
was completed by taking the four hundred and fifty humil- 
iated prophets of Baal down to the brook Kishon and 
slaughtering them, and then Elijah announced the sound 
of abundance of rain. Here we recognize many of the 
familiar rain-making ceremonies of primitive people the 
world over. The seed offering symbolized the harvest de- 
sired and so sorely needed; by imitative or mimetic magic 
the drenching water would stimulate an outpour from the 
heavens; and finally, the sins on account of which the rain 

41 "Thompson River Indians of British Columbia," James Teit, 109; 
" Scatalogic Rites," J. G. Bourke, 270. 
42 1 Kings xviii. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 113 

was withheld were expiated by the sacrifice of the 
hosts of the wicked at the brook. The cutting and 
slashing of the false prophets continued till the flowing 
blood represented the rain desired, as in Java. The sac- 
rifice of strangers or those worshiping foreign gods to 
bring rain is not unknown. It is told that Busiris, tyrant 
of Egypt, when informed by the soothsayer Thrasylius 
in time of drought that the spell which caused it could be 
broken by the sacrifice of a stranger to Jupiter, learning 
that Thrasylius was a stranger, or foreigner, caused him 
to be sacrificed first. Ovid in alluding to the story says 
that showers of rain followed. 43 Pouring water upon 
stones or an altar to effect a change in the weather is a not 
unusual way of proceeding. Fishermen in the Hebrides 
walked sunwise round Fladda's chapel and poured water 
on the bluish stone upon its altar to change the wind. 
Tradition says a stone used to be kept in the temple of 
Mars just outside the gates of the city of Rome, and when- 
ever there was a drought the stone was carried by the 
pontiffs into the city and the rain came to them. Grimm 
quotes a clergyman's description of the way in which he 
saw some peasants shaping the weather by eating, drink- 
ing, and dancing round three stones to rustic music. If 
they set the stones upright, it was dry; if they laid them 
lengthwise, it was wet. 44 

Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and spread 
it upon the rock from the beginning of harvest till water 
dropped out of heaven, suffering neither the birds of the 
air to rest there by day nor the beasts of the field by night. 45 

In the time of St. Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons, he 
says it was a universal belief in his province that a species 

43 " Invective against the Ibis," i. 411. 

44 " Teutonic Mythology," 1087. 

45 2 Sam. xxi. 10. 



ii 4 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

of sorcerers called the Tempestarii were employed by the 
people of a region known as Magonia to bring on storms 
which injured the crops, and that the crops so injured by 
storm and hail were carried to the Magonians in ships 
that came in the clouds. At one time three men and a 
woman, who were said to have fallen from one of the ships 
of the Magonians, were seized and carried in chains be- 
fore an assembly of the people, who condemned them to 
be stoned to death, from which fate they were only saved 
by the intercession of the Archbishop. The storms raised 
by these Tempestarii could be counteracted by employing 
certain practitioners, who accepted as a recompense there- 
for a certain percentage of the crops which they saved. 46 

Sometimes the Chinese, when the supply of rain was 
deficient in their own district, went into another locality, 
presumably one more favored, and borrowed a god tem- 
porarily, which was returned with honors if the desired 
effect had been accomplished, otherwise he might be left 
a while in the sun to admonish him to do his duty. Per- 
haps a bunch of willows was thrust into his hand as an 
emblem of moisture to remind him of what was needed. 
In certain months when the rainfall is due, prayers are 
offered which are supposed to become effective within a 
certain limit of time, during which the umbrella is under 
a ban, and at such periods foreigners have sometimes been 
ill-treated for carrying one. 

Kings, in early times supposed to be divine or semi- 
divine personages, had to share with deities responsibili- 
ties for the condition of the weather. They were some- 
times beaten to compel them to bring a desired change in 
it, when coaxing and rich presents failed to accomplish it. 
In some parts of West Africa they bind the king with 
ropes and march him to the graves of his fathers, or they 

40 " History of the Inquisition," iii. 415. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 115 

strip him of his property and banish or kill him if the 
crops fail, or showers fail to come, as has been known to 
be done in Korea. 47 Is there not, in the ways of modern 
times, a perceptible reflection of this primitive custom, in 
countries where the people, to a considerable extent, enjoy 
the privilege of suffrage, when the party in power is 
always charged with being responsible for hard times re- 
sulting from agricultural depression which follows a fail- 
ure of the crops? The reverse is equally noticeable, for 
prosperity is always said to be the result of beneficent rule 
when a favorable season brings plenty to the land. 

Seamen in a storm have been known to punish or ill- 
treat the image of St. James. Whirlwinds have been 
ascribed to divine, semi-divine, and diabolical beings. One 
of the Edda legends attributes all winds to a giant in the 
shape of an eagle who sits at the end of heaven. When he 
flaps his wings the winds rise under them. Mr. Martin, 
writing about 17 16, speaks of a former custom of hanging 
a he-goat to the mast of a boat to secure a favorable wind, 
and adds that the custom had been discontinued thirteen 
years before his visit. Shetland seamen buy winds of the 
old woman who rules the storms. Wizards of Lapland 
tie up the wind in knots, and the more knots are loosed the 
stronger it blows. It is to this practice that Shakespeare 
refers when he writes in " Macbeth " of the witches un- 
tying the winds. Witches of Norway tied winds and foul 
weather up in a bag, and at the proper moment let them 
out, crying, " wind in the devil's name," and a storm 
would rush out, laying the land waste and overturning 
ships at sea. Esthonians thought a wind could be gener- 
ated by hanging up a snake. By setting an ax upright 
it could be turned in the direction you wished it to blow. 
An old woman at Bamborg appeased the hunger of the 

47 " The Golden Bough," i. 157. 



n6 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

wind when it was raging wildly, by emptying her meal sack 
out of the window into the air and exclaiming, " Dear 
wind, don't be so wild; take that home to your child." 
iEolus gave to Odysseus a " wallet made of the hide of an 
ox nine seasons old," in which " he bound the ways of all 
the noisy winds," and he made the wallet fast in the hold 
of the ship, with a shining silver thong, so that not the 
faintest breath might escape. Then he sent forth the blast 
of the west wind to start them on their way. To get a 
fair wind, fishermen in the north of Galway buried a fowl 
in the sand of the seashore, turning its head to the point 
from which the adverse wind blew. The fowl was left to 
perish. To procure a fair wind in the Island of Inish- 
glora a black hen used to be buried alive, with its wings 
spread out; and King Eric of Sweden, with his enchanted 
cap and " some magical murmur of whispering terms," 
could command the aerial spirits to trouble the air and 
make the wind stand which way he would. 4S 

Rain makers of Southern Polynesia employ human 
bones to compel the clouds. Among some peoples the 
name of the dead must not be mentioned at all times 
because it was a vital part of a man, and to mention it 
might be the means of putting power of doing an injury 
into the hands of an enemy, or sorcerers. The names of 
deities, if mentioned, might cause distressing occurrences 
in nature. The sacred books of the Mongols, in which are 
recounted the glorious deeds of divinities, may only be 
read in spring and summer, as at other seasons the reading 
might cause tempest or snow. The intimate association 
of frogs and toads with springs and wet places has prob- 
ably led to the belief that they controlled the fall of rain. 

""Teutonic Mythology," 633, 636, 767, 1087; Pinkerton's "Voyages," 
Hi. 74, 610; "Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland," W. G. Wood-Martin, 
i. 305; Odyssey, x. 19; "Macbeth," iv. i. 52. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 117 

Sometimes they have been beaten in time of drouth to 
bring it to an end, as, for the same purpose, little images 
of them were placed on top of the hills by Indians of Peru 
and Bolivia; while, on the contrary, in Southeastern 
Australia, where the rainfall was excessive, the people 
feared to injure them lest a flood might follow. The 
Thompson River Indians of British Columbia kill a frog 
to bring on rain. In Northwestern India they hang one 
upon a tree for a day or two that the rain god may take 
pity on it and send a shower. The frog is sacred in some 
parts of India, and religious rites in connection with it, 
accompanied with prayers, are observed, to secure rain. 
Witches bring on storm and hail by lashing the brooks 
with their brooms, squirting water up into the air, shoot- 
ing gravel, and scattering sand toward sunset. 49 

In the Tyrol, witches used combed-out hair for making 
hailstones. It is said that Romans permitted no one on 
shipboard to cut his hair excepting during a storm, for 
then, when the storm was on, the danger of causing one 
was past. A charm was sometimes recited at hair-cutting 
to avert thunder and lightning. Tribes of West Africa 
tear out the hair and nails of a corpse for rain charms. 
Human hair was placed in streams to increase the flow of 
water. The hair, beard, and nails of a deceased chief 
were precious treasures for making rain, and once falling 
into the hands of an enemy, a terrible drought followed. 50 

In Little Russia witches are said to steal the dew and 
rain from the clouds. It is even said that once in the dis- 
tant past they robbed the clouds to such an extent that for 
a whole summer there was no rain. The principal gath- 
erings of these unclean spirits take place at the summer and 

48 Dr. Brinton in Journal of America Folk-Lore, iii. 17; "The Golden 
Bough," i. 103-105 ; Grimm, 1072. 
60 "The Golden Bough," i. 379. 



iiS MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

winter solstices, when they meet with their families. 
Their meetings are held upon the bald hills, and some- 
times upon the threshing floors, and at them special efforts 
are made to steal the sun and dew and even the moon 
and stars. 

An old writer has dwelt upon the continued antipathy 
of the sheep and the wolf after death. " For if there 
be put upon a harp," says he, " or any such like instrument 
strings made of the intrailles of a sheepe and amongst 
them only one made of the intrailles of a wolfe, be the 
musician never so cunning in skill, yet can he not recon- 
cile them to an unity and Concorde of sounds, so discord- 
ing always is that string of the wolfe." 51 In like manner 
it is an old belief, and still exists, that certain classes of 
persons, after they are dead, still continue to antagonize 
and injure the living. As vampires they come forth from 
their graves and wander around. They bring drought 
upon the land by sucking the water from the clouds. Sui- 
cides, witches, and victims of sudden death, and those who 
die impenitent and without extreme unction are still 
regarded in some Oriental countries as to be feared lest 
they become roving vampires when dead. Various 
methods are recorded for compelling the vampire to re- 
main in his grave and so avoid bringing drought and pesti- 
lences. They bury the body face downwards and drive an 
ash stake through the back in Russia, and in Poland and 
East Prussia they wrap the corpse in a fish net and cover it 
with poppies. Sometimes the head is severed and placed 
where the feet are expected to be. The Russian penal 
code forbids opening graves and mutilating corpses for 
the purpose of preventing them from becoming vampires. 
The law against it attests the fact of the practice. A 
peasant hanged himself in the village of Ivanovka in 

""Natural History Lore and Legend," Edward Hulme, 159. 



MAKING THE WEATHER 119 

1887, and soon after the people of the province began to 
suffer from a drought. Assuming a connection between 
the suicide and the dry season, they assembled at the 
unhallowed grave and by magic sought to produce rain. 
As they poured out water upon the grave, they cried, " I 
sprinkle, I pour; may God send a shower, bring on a little 
rainfall and relieve us from misery." The prayer of the 
supplicant not bringing a satisfactory result, the body of 
the self-murderer was taken up and buried in a gorge out- 
side the village. In some cases the corpse is disinterred 
and beaten on the head and drenched with water poured 
through a sieve, or burned. 52 

As relics of the dead have been so extensively identified 
as potent agents in ceremonies for controlling the atmos- 
pheric conditions, it is not suprising if we find customs and 
beliefs yet existing in civilized communities which strongly 
suggest that their origin has sprung from this belief; and 
from such a source, it may be, has sprung the familar 
practice, in some parts of Pennsylvania and New York, of 
fortelling the character of the coming winter by inspecting 
the breastbone of a goose killed in November, when dark 
stains on the surface indicate a bitter winter, but if the 
bone is white and clean an open winter is assured. 

Recent evidence 53 has been furnished of the still prev- 
alent belief, among the peasantry of the Bukowina 
Province of Austria-Hungary, that when public prayers 
fail to break up a drought, as a last resort a corpse will 
effect it, if dug up at midnight — a suicide's for choice — and 
flung into the river, or in .the absence of any river it 
may be tossed into the nearest pit. In the year 1901 
public prayers were tried in vain to bring to an end the 
drought from which they were seriously suffering, and 

02 E. P. Evans, in Popular Science Monthly, liv. 213. 

63 New York Times, July 12, i<?ci, »■■'■ _.._. 



120 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

the inhabitants of Kurumar, a village near Cernowitz, dug 
up a body from a cemetery and, with ceremonies according 
to the prescribed formulas, pitched it into the Pruth, 
where, instead of sinking, it was tossed about until the 
attention of the public authorities was called to it and an 
inquiry begun which led to prosecutions. It is said the 
villagers refused to recognize any impropriety in their act, 
and as rain actually fell within the next two days, they 
probably continue to believe that it was the result of their 
charm. 



CHAPTER VII 

LUNAR AND PLANETARY INFLUENCE 

" If, rural Phidyle, at the moon's arise 
To heaven thou lift thy hands in humble wise; 
If thou with sacrifice thy Lars wilt please, 
Or with new fruit or greedy swine appease, 
Thy fertile vineyard shall not suffer blast 
From pestilent south; nor parching dew be cast 
Upon thy corn, nor shall thy children dear 
Feel sickly fits in autumn of the year." 1 

An ancient idea of the moon was that it was a star full 
of water. It is not improbable that this thought is, to 
some extent, associated with the more common belief that 
the moon controlled the supply of water. The word for 
moon and water is sometimes the same. One of the 
Chinese sages affirmed that the vital essence of the moon 
governed water. The Iranians thought the growth of 
plants was dependent on the influence of the moon. Plu- 
tarch said there were many proofs that moisture came to 
us from the moon, as the growth of plants, the putrefac- 
tion of meat, and the softening of timber. 2 Common 
people the world over still to a great extent persist in 
connecting the moon with the supply of moisture on the 
earth, philosophers and scientists to the contrary notwith- 
standing. In Indian mythology the moon controlled the 
rains and water. Ataensic was the Huron name for moon 
or water. The names for moon and water were the same 
in the language of the Algonquins, and they were similar 
among the Aztecs. 

1 Horace, " Odes," iii. xxiii., Sir T. Hawkins. 
2 " On the Apparent Face in the Moon." xxv. 

121 



■ 



122 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

That the so-called changes in the moon cause the 
changes in the weather, is a belief which has come down 
from remote antiquity, and is the child of astrology and 
moon worship. It is still acceptable to the masses. 
" That educated people," says Professor Tylor, " to whom 
exact weather records are accessible, should still find satis- 
faction in the fanciful lunar rule, is an interesting case of 
intellectual survival." 3 

St. Augustine thought is was a great offense for a man 
to observe the time and course of the moon in planting and 
sowing, as none put trust in them but those that worship 
the moon, but the persistent use of many familiar sayings 
and proverbs in which are embodied the weather-lore of 
the moon indicate that they have made a deeper impres- 
sion on the minds of the people than the voice of the saint. 

A hazy circle round the moon is still regarded as prog- 
nosticating rain. If the circle be wide and some distance 
away, the rain will be delayed, and if close to the moon's 
disc, it will follow soon. The number of stars in the circle 
is supposed to determine the number of days before the 
storm will come. Tusser wrote of the moon at full: 

" If great she appeareth, it showereth out, 
If small she appeareth, it signifies drought." 

Scotch farmers have a saying, that, 

" If the moon shows like a silver shield, 
You need not be afraid to reap your field; 
But if she rises haloed round, 
Soon we'll tread on deluged ground." 

Sailors say that " a big star is dogging the moon " when 
a large star or planet is seen near the rnoon. It is a sign 
that threatens stormy weather. When the " moon dogs " 

3 " Primitive Culture," i. 130. 



LUNAR AND PLANETARY INFLUENCE 123 

are out and the moon is surrounded by a halo with watery 
clouds, a change in the weather is imminent. 

" If mist's in the new moon, rain in the old ; 
If mist's in the old, rain in the new moon." 

An old proverb says there will be as many floods after 
Michaelmas Day as the moon is days old at that time. 

The day of the week on which an apparent change in 
the moon takes place is also credited by the credulous with 
determining to considerable extent the character of the 
weather to follow. An English weather saw says : 

" Saturday's new and Sunday's full 
Never was good and never wull." 

A new moon on Monday, or moon day, is regarded as 
always favorable, and a sign of fair weather. A new 
moon on Friday is looked upon with less confidence. 

The Scotch say when the new moon " lies sair on her 
back" it is a sure sign of bad weather, and if the new 
moon appears with the old moon in her arms, we learn 
from the famous old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence what 
may be expected: 

" O say na sae, my master deir, 
For I feir a deadlie storme. 
Late, late yestreen I saw the new moone 
Wi' the auld moone in hir arme ; 
And I feir, I feir, my deir master, 
That we will come to harme." 

The writer has often heard, in Central New York, the 
belief expressed in all sincerity that a fall of snow coming 
in the new of the moon was more likely to remain, making 
more probable a long run of sleighing. The poet Virgil 
has given the portent of appearances of the moon and other 
celestial bodies which is probably to be accepted as the 
belief prevalent among the Romans two thousand years 



i2 4 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

ago. A darkened new moon betokened rain; a red, wind; 
and if the moon was clear and bright on the fourth night 
of its appearance, the weather would be fair for the fol- 
lowing days of the month. If the sun rose spotted, 
showing only the center of his orb, it portended rain. If 
his rays were parted, or if the dawn was pale, hail was 
threatened. If the sun was of a bluish color at setting, it 
indicated rain; if red, wind; if spotted, rain and wind. If 
bright at rising and setting, there would be clear weather 
accompanied with a northerly wind. 4 

The Floralia, the Roman festival of flowers, was held 
April 28th, and continued four days. That the cere- 
monies would tend to bring on a more favorable season 
for the flowers was probably believed, to some extent at 
least; but if the period of the festival was at the time of 
a full moon, great injury was feared from it. A full 
moon was likewise undesirable at the feast of the vines, 
the Vinalia. A full moon at these times was especially 
regarded with disfavor if the nights were clear and the air 
was still. The noxious influence of the full moon might 
sometimes be averted by building a bonfire in the fields, 
or three crabs were burned alive on the trees upon which 
the vines were trained. Pliny gives Varro as authority 
for the use of a painted grape which had been consecrated, 
to protect the vineyard from the evil effects of unfavorable 
atmospheric conditions. Pliny thought that tempests took 
their rise in certain noxious constellations, as Arcturus, 
Orion, and the Kids, and that when storms take place 
at the full moon they have additional intensity. The 
influence of the moon in destroying vegetation is accounted 
for in this way : emanations from the Milky Way supply 
the milky nutriment of all vegetables, and the influence of 
the constellation Sagittarius and of Gemini develops itself 

4 Georgics, i. 427. 



LUNAR AND PLANETARY INFLUENCE 125 

upon all cultivated lands, and if at the time of their rising 
the moon sheds her chilling dews the bitterness thereof 
infuses itself into the milky secretions and kills vegetation 
at its birth. Timber should never be touched except when 
the moon was in the change, or at the end of the second 
quarter, and if a tree was to be rooted up it ought always 
to be done when the moon was on the wane, and after mid- 
day. Timber would be incorruptible if cut at the very 
moment of the change. It was a point to be religiously 
observed that grafts should be inserted during the increase. 
The olive and fig should be grafted only in a thirsting or 
dry moon in the afternoon while a south wind was blow- 
ing. Grain cut during the increase increases in size. The 
best time for boiling down grape juice was in a night with- 
out a moon, and better in the day time than at a full moon, 
and after the moon sets or before it rises. All vegetable 
products were better gathered and harvested while the 
moon was waning. It was better for land to be manured 
while the moon was in conjunction, or at first quarter. 
Gelding should be done at the wane, and eggs put under a 
hen at the new. 5 We learn from Pausanias that the 
Greeks believed certain stars and constellations to have an 
unfavorable influence upon the crops. The constellation 
of the Goat at its rise boded injury to the fruit of the 
vines. At the market place at Philus a brazen she-goat 
was erected to which particular honors were paid during 
the time of the constellation of the Goat, to counteract its 
dangerous influence upon the vines. 6 

The ancients looked upon Saturn as an evening star, 
and upon its conjunction with the moon with apprehen- 
sion. Saturn was sometimes termed the Greater Ill- 
fortune and Mars the Lesser Ill-fortune, for the influence 

5 " Natural History," xvi. 75 ; xvii. 24 ; xviii. 70-75. 
" Description of Greece," ii. 13. 



126 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

of the latter was considered less malignant than that of 
Saturn. Mars was likened to a burning fever, while Sat- 
urn has been compared to a lingering and fatal consump- 
tion. Tennyson said that Mars " glowed like a ruddy 
shield on the lion's heart." 

Anciently, and to a comparatively recent period in 
modern history, astrology was recognized as a science 
worthy of serious attention. Belief in the influence of 
stars and planets and the different phases of the moon 
upon vegetation is probably to be traced to this source, 
and springs primarily from the worship of the heavenly 
bodies as deities, when they were thought to grant or with- 
hold the supplies of food for men and beasts accordingly 
as they were favorably disposed towards them, or angry 
with them. Brand quotes from Hall's " Virgidemiarum : " 

" Thou damned Mock-Art, and thou brain-sick tale 

Of old Astrologie 

Some doting gossip 'mongst the Chaldee wives 

Did to the credulous world thee first derive ; 

And Superstition nursed thee ever sence, 

And publisht in profounder arts pretence ; 
. That now, who pares his nailes, or libs his swine, 

But he must first take counseil of the signe." 

Probably in all rural districts, however, the' moon is 
still more or less looked to by the husbandman for favor- 
able signs in his agricultural operations. Predictions of 
the weather are founded on the moon's changes. It is a 
matter of not infrequent discussion among them. The 
writer has often conversed with practical farmers in rela- 
tion to it, and heard them relate their personal experience 
confirming their belief in the importance of conforming 
to the old traditions. He has been assured by tillers of 
the soil gray with the experience of many years that their 
buckwheat always filled better if it had come to bloom in 
the period when the moon was waxing to its full, and lis- 



LUNAR AND PLANETARY INFLUENCE 127 

tened to the tales of others with less faith, who, neverthe- 
less, confessed to having experimented for themselves, and, 
having planted a portion of a field in the new of the moon 
and the rest of it in the full, believed themselves qualified 
to speak with authority upon the subject. With others, 
who had long since passed from the condition of credulity 
necessary to an acceptance of this ancient survival as a 
working theory, it is a no less matter of frequent conversa- 
tion and comment, sometimes of jocular remarks and ridi- 
cule, but this very fact, too, is evidence of the vital hold the 
belief once had upon the minds of men in more primitive 
time when moon and stars were thought to have such 
influence upon our daily lives. 

Of the influence of the moon upon things terres- 
trial, as the astrologers taught, Buti, quoting from Albu- 
masar, says: " The moon is cold, moist, and phlegmatic, 
sometimes warm, and gives lightness, aptitude in all 
things, desire of joy, of beauty, and of praise, beginning 
of all works, knowledge of the rich and noble, prosperity 
in life, aquisition of things desired, devotion in faith, 
superior sciences, multitude of thoughts, necromancy, 
acuteness of mind in things, geometry, knowledge of lands 
and waters and their measure and number, weakness of 
the sentiments, noble women, marriages, pregnancies, 
nursings, embassies, falsehoods, accusations; the being lord 
among lords, servant among servants, and conformity 
with every man of like nature, oblivion thereof, timid, of 
ample heart, flattering, honorable towards men, useful to 
them, not betraying secrets, a multitude of infirmities, and 
the care of healing bodies, cutting hair, liberality of food, 
chastity," and of these influences " the wise man follows 
the good and leaves the bad; though all are good and 
necessary to the life of the universe." 7 

7 Longfellow's " Dante," note to canto iii. of " Paradise." 



128 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

The movements and positions of the planets and stars 
were carefully studied by the ancient Babylonians. It was 
deemed of the utmost importance by them. A large por- 
tion of the library of Ashurbanabal, which has been re- 
cently excavated, was devoted to the explanation of the 
portents of the varying phenomena of the heavens, and 
their influence upon the welfare of the people, the pros- 
perity of the country, and upon agriculture. By such 
observations they believed themselves to be best prepared 
to counteract unfavorable conditions. The appearance of 
the new moon each month was carefully watched for and 
observed and duly reported to the proper officials. The 
time when it was first discerned was recorded, and the 
king was informed of it. Of special significance was the 
announcement of an eclipse. One of their official reports 
reads : 

" To the Agriculturist, my lord, 
Thy servant Nabushhumiddin, 
An officer of Nineveh, 
May Nabu and Marduk be gracious 
To the Agriculturist, my lord. 

The fourteenth day we kept a watch for the moon. 
The moon suffered an eclipse." 8 

One of the tablets records the appearance of the sun 
and moon at the same time on the fourteenth day of the 
month, and the prediction that the gods of Babylonia 
were favorably inclined, and " The cattle of Babylonia 
will pasture in safety." 9 The moon being seen out of 
season might portend a failure of the harvest, and being 
thus forewarned, they were prepared to make an effort to 
forestall the future and escape the dreaded consequences. 
The time of the appearance and disappearance of the 
planet Venus as an evening star was given special promi- 

■ " Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," Morris Jastrow, 357. 
9 Ibid. 359 



LUNAR AND PLANETARY INFLUENCE 129 

nence in the omen tablets. For instance, one of them 
records the disappearance of the planet at sunrise on the 
tenth day of Marcheshwan (eighth month), and for two 
months and six days it was hidden, reappearing on the 
sixteenth day of the tenth month, signifying abundant 
crops. But Venus appearing on the second day of Nisan 
at sunrise predicted distress in the land. 

Periodical ceremonies for the expulsion of evil spirits 
were observed by many people. The time for them was 
often fixed by the phases of the moon. At Tonquin such 
a ceremony took place annually, especially if the mortality 
of men or cattle was great. In Cambodia it occurred on 
the evening of the full moon in March, in Fiji in the last 
quarter of the moon in November, in the Island of Bali 
on the day of the dark moon in the ninth month, or as 
some authorities write, it was at a time which each village 
chose for itself, but always at the time of the new moon. 10 

That the sexual emotions of some animals, especially 
swine, was believed to be greatest when the moon was on 
the wane, is learned from Plutarch, who gives that as a 
reason assigned by the Egyptian priests for rejecting the 
swine's flesh as food, excepting when used sacrificially at 
the feasts of the new moon. 11 " For the moon herself," 
says the same author, " out of desire for the sun, revolves 
round and comes in contact with him, because she longs 
to derive from him the generative principle." The light 
of the moon, being more fertilizing and watery than that 
of the sun, is favorable for the breeding of animals and the 
growing of plants. 12 

The increase of marrow and brain in animals has been 
ascribed to .the influence of the moon, Dr. Johnson ob- 

10 "The Golden Bough," in. 81, note. 

11 " Isis and Osiris," viii. 

""Isis and Osiris," xli; "The Apparent Face of the Moon's Orb," xxx 



\/ 



i 3 o MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

served that the precept was annually given in his day in 
almanacs, that hogs should be killed when the moon was 
increasing, for then the bacon would prove the better in 
boiling. Old writers say that sheep should be sheared in 
the increase,- and timber cut at the full, but wood for fuel 
in the first quarter. Cattle must be gelded when the moon 
is in Aries, Sagittarius, or Capricorn. Setting, sowing, 
grafting, and planting were advised when the moon was in 
Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn. In a work written in 1637, 
the reason given for gelding cattle and gathering fruit in 
the waning moon was u because in that season bodies 
have lesse humour and heate, by which an innated putre- 
faction is wont to make them faulty and unsound." A 
writer in 1661 says that foals got in the wane of the moon 
are inferior. Grimm records a saying that cattle born or 
weaned in a waning moon are not good for breeding. 
Those weaned in the waxing light have a better chance for 
growing. Weaned in the wane, they grow thin and lean. 
Grass is not to be cut at the new, but at the full moon, that 
it may dry quickly. Bamboo planks cut at the new moon 
last ten years, but cut at the full, rot within the year. 
Fruits that grow above ground are to be sown in the wax- 
ing moon, those under ground in the waning. 13 

In an almanac of 1661 the necessity of observing the 
proper period of the moon in cultivation is shown in the 
following passage : 

" If any corn, seed or plant be either set or sown within 
six hours either before or after the full moon in summer, 
or before the new moon in winter, having joined with the 
cosmical rising of Arcturus and Orion, the Haedi and the 
Siculi, it is subject to blasting and canker." 14 

A writer in the London Spectator refers to the common 

"Brand, 658; Grimm, 713, 715, 1808. 
11 " Magic of the Horse-Shoe," 18. 



LUNAR AND PLANETARY INFLUENCE 131 

belief that cabbages must be sown the first or second day 
after the full moon, or the plants when grown will run to 
seed and have no heart. 

In a work by Sir Hugh Plat, in 1660, it is said to be 
well to sow peas at the full moon, or three days before and 
till eight days after. Onions must be sowed the nearer 
the full the better, and within eight days after at the 
farthest. Sow your " coleflower " at the April full, says 
he. He gives it as a commonly accepted opinion of his 
time that those seeds you wish to bring large roots and not 
seed should be sowed in the wane, and those, you wish to go 
to seed again should be sowed in the increase. 15 Pliny 
thought garlic and beans might be sowed in the wane of 
the moon. The latter, he said, Pythagoras condemned 
because they contained the souls of the dead, and Plutarch 
says the Egyptian priests rejected the former because it is 
the only plant that grows and flourishes while the moon 
is on the wane. 10 We find Tusser, in the century before 
" The Garden of Eden " was written, following the teach- 
ing of Pliny in his verse : 

" Sowe peason and beans in the wane of the moone, 
Who soyveth them sooner, he soweth too soone ; 
That they, with the planet, may rest and rise, 
And flourish with bearing, most plentiful wise." 

Two centuries later, in Tusser " Redivivus " (1744), 
the reason assigned for it is that peas and beans s'own 
during the increase run more to hawn and straw, and sown 
during the declension, more to cod, " according to the 
common consent of countrymen." 

" The moon in the wane, gather fruit for to last," 

says Tusser, 

15 " The Garden of Eden," 106. 

18 " Natural History," xviii ; " Isis and Osiris," viii. 



i 3 2 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

" But winter fruit gather when Michel is past." 

The traditional influence of the moon upon vegetation 
and the necessity of observing the proper lunar period in 
putting the seed into the ground, is voiced by Keats in the 
rhapsody of Edymion, who exclaims: 

" In sowing-time ne'er would I dibble take, 
Or drop a seed, till thou wast wide awake." 

The cobs from which the com for the spring planting has 
been shelled are buried with formal ceremonies by some 
of the southern negroes. The cobs are carefully gath- 
ered up and carried to a running stream and buried beneath 
its bed. This will save the fields from drouth or fire, and 
be a safeguard against thieves and prowling stock, but the 
ceremony must take place in the growing moon. 

Natives of Nicaragua selected the finest grains of the 
seed and exposed it to the moonlight four nights before 
beginning to plant the cacao. 17 The day of the full moon 
and the third day after no farm work is done by the natives 
of Sarawak, or the paddy will blight and mildew. 1S Hot- 
tentots dance before the moon, and practice all sorts of 
bodily contortions, crying out at her appearance : " I 
salute you, you are welcome. Grant us fodder for our 
cattle and milk in abundance." 19 

In the folk-lore of southern Kentucky, they say fruit is 
never killed during the light of the moon, and that potatoes 
must be planted in the dark of the moon and all vegetables 
that ripen in the ground, but corn must be planted in the 
light of the moon. Posts of a rail fence will, they say, 
sink into the ground if not set in the dark of the moon. 
A house should be shingled in the dark of the moon, or the 

17 " Native Races," ii. 710. 

18 " Natives of Sarawak and North British Borneo," i. 401. 

1U " Moon Lore," T. Harley, 116. 



LUNAR AND PLANETARY INFLUENCE 133 

shingles will rip and warp. 20 An old resident of Missouri 
informs me of a belief there that a rail fence must be laid 
in the light of the moon or it will rot. 

The Thompson River Indians have it that the moon was 
originally an Indian, but for some reason was transformed 
and became what he is at present. At one time his face 
was light as the sun, and it might be now if it were not for 
the fact that his youngest sister sits on his face and darkens 
it. He is a great smoker and clouds come from the smoke 
of his pipe. If the weather is good and the sky clear and 
he begins to smoke, the clouds gather and darken the 
heavens. 21 

Dr. Brinton has traced the well-known custom of break- 
ing a wishbone at the dinner table to the " worship of 
Astarte and Ostara, goddesses of fertility and reproduc- 
tion." The belief in its efficacy is derived from its 
shape, which simulates that of the new moon. 22 

The moon has shared with the comets the responsibility 
for misfortunes and catastrophes that have befallen the 
earth in the past. A writer in the Portfolio, published in 
New York in 18 12, has gathered statistics showing how 
great a number of the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions 
of record have occurred about the time of the full moon, 
or changes of the moon, and the disastrous effects of the 
appearance of comets, and the one in particular which 
occurred 125 years before the Christian Era, which for 
seventy days shone with such luster that the heavens 
appeared to be on fire, before whose baneful influence 
domestic animals, beasts of the fields, and birds of the 
forest fell victims. 23 

Dr. Albert E. Jenks has called attention to the world- 

20 Journal of American Folk-Lore, xiv. 30, 37. 

21 "Thompson River Indians of British Columbia," 91. 

22 " Folk-Lore of the Bones," Journal of American Folk-Lore, ii. 17. 
* 3 Vol. vii. 2Zi. 



i 3 4 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

wide custom of primitive people of naming months or 
moons of the year after that natural product which, by its 
abundance or usefulness, emphasizes itself for the time 
being above all other products. In the Ojibwa language 
the September moon is called " the moon of the gathering 
of wild rice." The same was characteristic of other 
American Indian tribes. Two moons corresponding to 
September and October in the Dakota language received 
their names from " wild rice." In Iroquois and Chero- 
kee myth the origin of the Milky Way is traced to corn- 
meal which dogs dropped from their mouths as they ran, 
and left a milky trail across the sky. 24 

Again and again the moon and the stars are referred 
to in the old poetry of the Greeks as signs for agricultural- 
ists in their labors. 

" When beneath the skies on morning's brink 
The Pleiads, Hyads, and Orion sink; 
Know then the plowing and the seedtime near . . . 
When Sirius and Orion the mid-sky 
Ascend, and on Arcturus looks from high 
The rosy-finger'd morn, the vintage calls. 

When first Orion's beamy strength is born, 
Let then thy laborers thrash the sacred corn." a 

** Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 259. 
443, 1089. 

25 Hesiod's " Works and Days," Elton's translation. 



CHAPTER VIII 

PROTECTING THE HERDS 

" Beliefs that ruled man long ago 
Within our actions ofttimes show; 
The habits of primeval days 
Still close beset our modern ways; 
And thoughts we scorn with boastful pride, 
Our steps, unconscious guide." x 

" The phenomena which impress themselves most forc- 
ibly on the mind of the savage," says the historian Lecky, 
" are not those which enter manifestly into the sequence of 
natural law and which are productive of most beneficial 
effects, but those which are disastrous and apparently 
abnormal." 2 At a time when it was almost universally 
believed that one of the ordinary occupations of witches 
and evil spirits was to stir up hailstorms and tempests, 
bringing destruction upon certain localities and leaving 
others in close proximity untouched, ruining one man's 
field and leaving unscathed his neighbor's, what more 
logical conclusion than that the revengeful hand of some 
diabolical agent was responsible for such unfair partiality? 
If fear that harm would come to his crop from such 
sources was ever present with the cultivator of the land, 
it was doubly so to him who was given the care and over- 
sight of flocks and herds. Any malformation of the 
young, or unfortunate circumstance attending their growth 
and after life, even death itself, pointed to the magician 

1 Henry Phillips, jr., in Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. iii. 

2 " Rationalism in Europe," i. 41. 

135 



136 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

or witch as the source of it. To find means to circumvent 
these powers and undo their work, or guard against it, 
was praiseworthy. This we cannot deny, however much 
the mind staggers at the magnitude of their credulity in 
some of the methods recorded in the works devoted to the 
subject in the Middle Ages and later centuries. In one 
of the most noted, and perhaps infamous, works of this 
character, the " Malleus Malificarum," published in 1489, 
was formulated in detail the doctrine of witchcraft. It 
was also a code of procedure against witches. Its three 
principal parts were : " Things that pertain to Witchcraft," 
" The Effects of Witchcraft," and " The Remedies for 
Witchcraft." One of the kinds of witches described 
therein, one of the principal subdivisions of them, has the 
prerogative of possessing the power of making thunder 
and lightning, and hail and hurtful weather and raising 
tempests. To another class is given the faculty of causing 
barrenness in man, woman, and beast — " these can make 
horses kick till they cast their riders . . . these can 
with their looks kill either man or beast." They can stay 
the progress of the day or the night. Their look kills a 
lamb, but fortunately the remedy is prescribed. The effect 
may be counteracted or prevented by saying: " Miranda 
canunt, fed non credenda pcetae." A bewitched beast might 
be cured with holy water, though the beast was not to be 
sprinkled with the water, but have it turned into its mouth. 
Another cure for a beast so afflicted was the saying of 
three pater nosters and three aves and the exhibit of three 
crosses, or, at Easter, take drops of the holy paschal candle 
that lie uppermost, and make a wax candle of them. 
Light it on Sunday morning and hold it so that it will 
drop upon and between the horns and ears of the beast 
which is under the spell of the witch, meanwhile saying:: 
" in nomine filii duplex." Then burn the beast a little 



PROTECTING THE HERDS 137 

between the horns and ears, and stick what is left of the 
wax crosswise about the stable or stall or threshold, or 
over the door. This is a protection that will serve through 
a year. 

Nearly a hundred years later came the most significant 
and praiseworthy book of Reginald Scot, which called 
down upon his head the wrath of James VI. of Scotland. 
The book was burned by the King's orders, and did not rise 
again from its ashes for two-thirds of a century. Not 
satisfied with his public humiliation of the author, King 
James himself wrote and published a book refuting the 
heresy of Scot and in defense of witchcraft. Scot's book 
professedly was aimed at " Alchymistry " and " Witch- 
craft." While the author was not then fully prepared to 
affirm the non-existence of witches, the boldness and ration- 
alism of the author was far in advance of any work on the 
subject heretofore published. Scot says, if the writers of 
his own time can be believed, old women could kill horses 
with words, and transform men into beasts. If certain 
words were spoken in a bull's ear by a witch, the bull would 
fall to the ground as if dead, or wild horses and wild bulls 
could be tamed by them. 3 A method for detecting a witch, 
current at the time, according to the author is as follows : 
When a cow of the herd has been meddled with by a witch, 
put a pair of breeches on the cow's head, and beat her out 
of the pasture with a cudgel on Friday. She will then run 
right to the witch's door and strike it with her horns. 

Truly indeed, Grimm has said, "yet farming and cattle 
breeding have a long history, too, and a number of super- 
stitious rites connected with them stretch without a break 
through many centuries." * Witches were believed to 
be able to milk a cow without going near it. They 



3 " Discoverie of Witchcraft," Book xii. chap. xxi. 

4 "Teutonic Mythology," uo6. 



i 3 3 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

stuck a knife in an oaken post, hung a string on it, 
and made the milk flow out of the string, or drove an 
ax into the door post and took milk out of the helve. 
They drew milk out of a spindle and out of a suspended 
handkerchief. They turned good milk blue and watery, or 
made it the color of blood, or they bewitched it so that it 
brought no butter, though by whipping the milk in the pot 
or stirring it with a sickle the cut of the lash or sickle made 
the witch dance. They made the cattle poor by stripping 
the dew from the grass, which they carried to their own 
pastures. They made the herds sick by conjuring into their 
bones caterpillars and beetles, the witches' elves. It may 
be suggested in passing that the probable origin of these 
witches' elves which were conjured into the bones were the 
flies from whose eggs, deposited in the back of the animal 
as a chosen breeding place, sprang the larvae designated 
as caterpillars and beetles, and commonly known as grubs. 
To guard against these witches, holy stones were hung 
at the heads of horses in the stable, or an elder Was planted 
before the stable door. Branches of the elsbeer tree hung 
over the stable on Walpurgis night kept out the flying 
dragon. Red rags were tied round the cows' tails the 
first time they were driven to the pasture in the spring as 
a preventive of bewitchment, or a bear shut in the cows' 
stable during the night prevented the witch from getting 
any hold on the cattle, for the bear scratched out the stuff 
that held the magic. When the Esthonians drove their 
cattle out first for the year they buried eggs under the 
threshold which the cattle must pass over and that would 
ensure them safety. In the Saalfield country, when the 
cattle were first driven out, axes, saws, and other iron tools 
were laid outside the stable door to keep them safe from 
harm. In some localities the ax was wrapped in a blue 
apron and placed just inside the stable and the cattle were 



PROTECTING THE HERDS 139 

allowed to step over it. And if when they were fed the 
evening before three pinches of salt were sprinkled be- 
tween their horns and the keeper walked backwards out of 
the stable evil eyes could not affect them. Boughs hal- 
lowed on Midsummer Day and hung at the stable door or 
at the stall where the cattle stood prevented the work of 
witches. The sheepfold was decked with green boughs 
and a wreath hung at the gate on the celebration of the 
Roman Parilia. 5 An old poet has written of Assumption 
Day: 

" Great bundles then of hearbes to church the people fast doe 
beare, 
The which against all hurtful things the priest doth hallow 
theare," 

and thus expel " every painful griefe from man or 
beast." 6 

And the following verse is an old expression of belief 
in consecrated willows and palms as guardians of man 
and beast: 

" Besides they candles up do light, of vertue like in all, 
And willow branches hallow, that they Palmes do use to call. 
This done, they verily beleeve the tempest nor the storme 
Can neyther hurt themselves, nor yet their cattell, nor their corne." 7 

Pennant, in his " Tour of Scotland," speaks of finding 
mountain ash and honeysuckle boughs in use in the cow 
houses to protect the herd from witches and being 
bewitched. Red thread was tied to them to prevent them 
from losing their milk. The evil eye was said to effect 
milk cows more than lambs. To prevent its injurious 
effects the good housewife took what milk she could get 
from the affected cattle, boiled certain herbs in it, adding 

B " Roman Festivals," Warde Fowler, 50. 
8 Brand's "Antiquities," 191. 
'Ibid. 6a. 



140 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

flints and untempered steel. Then she fastened the door 
and invoked the sacred three. This put the witch in 
agony and he came begging to the door and seeking relief 
by touching the pot in which the herbs were boiled, when 
the woman bargained with the witch for a restoration of 
the milk to the herd, and so found relief. To prove that a 
cow was really affected by a witch, a test was made by 
boiling a certain herb in the milk. If it distilled blood 
there was no longer any doubt about it. 8 

Mr. Martin, while traveling in the Western Isles of 
Scotland, was assured by the minister and others that 
when James Macdonald was killed at the battle of Keli- 
cranky his cows gave blood instead of milk. Most likely 
the story grew out of a belief that the death was effected 
by witchcraft. A method of breaking unruly cattle from 
trespassing on another's field, observed by the same author, 
was for the owner of the unruly animals to take them to 
his own boundaries and draw a little blood from each of 
them, leaving the animals on the spot. They would make 
him no more trouble during the season. Cattle observed 
running up and down the field without any apparent 
reason, betokened the death of the master or mistress of 
the place. 9 

In Yorkshire, England, and in a large part of Switzer- 
land and France, if some member of a family kills a robin, 
the family cow, it is believed, will give bloody milk. 10 
The writer has often heard in New York State a similar 
effect ascribed to the killing of a toad by a member of the 
family. If a swallow pass into the stable and under the 
cow she will give bloody milk, is reported by Grimm. To 
stop the flow of it, lead the cow to a crossways, milk her 

8 Pinkerton's "Voyages," iii. 69, 288. 

' Ibid. iii. 624. 

10 " English Folk-Lore," T. F- T. Dyer, 63. 



PROTECTING THE HERDS 141 

three times through a branch, and empty what you have 
milked backwards over your head three times. If the cow 
is driven past a witch's house, you must spit three times 
to protect her. If an unwashed girl wash the cow, cream 
will not rise on that cow's milk, and if a witch is present at 
the churning and succeeds in counting the hoops on the 
churn the butter will not come, but three grains of salt in 
the milk pot will frustrate the efforts of the witch, or if the 
churn is whipped with a willow rod, one that has not been 
cut with a knife, it will undo the bewitchment. 11 

Esthonians make an idol of straw on New Year's Day 
in the shape of a man, which they call metziko, and set up 
on a tree, to which they attribute the power of protecting 
their cattle and defending their frontier. 12 Protection 
from bears was obtained by beating on a drumhead made 
of horse skin. The bears were driven back into the 
wilderness, it is explained, because of the antipathy of the 
animals to each other. It is told that when the Johannites 
preached in a town or village they had a fine stallion ridden 
round, and anyone who could get a hair out of the horse's 
tail thought himself lucky. He sewed it into the middle 
of his milk strainer, and the milk thereafter was proof 
against witchcraft. 13 

It is an old and quite common belief in the history of 
magic that a horse can be made lame by sticking a nail 
into his fresh footprints. Some authorities in the black 
art require the nail to be made of a knife with which some- 
body has been stricken dead, or from the wood of a tree 
struck down by hail, or from the wood of a new gallows. 
Grimm gives the following charm for the protection of the 
herd: 

"Grimm, 1808, 182a 

12 Ibid, 721, note. 

13 Grimm, 658, note. 



142 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

" To-day my herd I drove 
Into Our Lady's grove, 
Into Abraham's garden ; 
Be good, St. Martin, 
This day my cattle's warden, 
May good St. Wolfgang, good St. Peter 
(Whose key can heav'n unlock), 
Throat of wolf and vixen block, 
Blood from shedding, bone from crunching! 
Help me the holy one, 
Who ill hath never done, 
And his V holy wounds 
Keep my herd from 'all wood-hounds." 14 

The ash tree was held by the Irish to be powerful 
against witches. Branches of it were wreathed round the 
horns of the cattle and round the child's cradle to keep off 
evil influences. In the tales of fairy dances with the dead, 
mortals were safe if they secured a branch of the ash and 
held it till they were out of reach of the spell. The alder 
was also a sacred tree and had power to avert evil. The 
hawthorn, too, was sacred to the fairies, and an oblation 
of milk was poured round its roots on May Day. Fairies 
were thought to be desirous of obtaining handsome cows, 
and often abducted them, leaving in their places old and 
diseased ones. In various ways the spells of the fairies 
were made ineffective. A bunch of primroses was tied 
to the tail of the cow, or a hot coal run down the cow's 
back to singe the hair. If witches stole the milk from the 
cows on May Day morning, it was said, the butter and 
cream for the whole year then belonged to the fairies. 
Primroses scattered on the threshold protected from the 
theft, especially if they were plucked before sunrise, as 
then no evil spirit could touch anything guarded by them. 
The milk could be saved by peeling branches of mountain 
ash and binding them round the milkpail and the churn. 

14 Grimm, 1240. 



PROTECTING THE HERDS 143 

This, too, must be done before the sun was up. A horse- 
shoe would also sometimes serve to protect the butter, or 
a rusty nail from a coffin driven into the side of it, or a cross 
made of leaves of veronica and placed at the bottom of the 
milkpail would answer. An Irish way of preventing the 
robbery of the cream from the milk by witchcraft was to 
stir the milk seven times with the hand of a dead man 
newly taken from the churchyard. On May Day morn- 
ing fairies were thought to have the greatest power, and 
their influence must be carefully guarded against. Some- 
times on that day a sacred heifer, snow-white, appeared 
among the cattle. This was great luck to the farmer. 
It is alluded to in an Irish song: 

"There is a cow on the mountain, 
A fair white cow; 
She goes East and she goes West, 
And my senses have gone for love of her; 
She goes with the sun and he forgets to burn, 
And the moon turns her face with love to her, 
My fair white cow of the mountain." 15 

A peculiar custom of the Irish in the sixteenth century 
is given by Thistleton Dyer on the authority of a writer 
in " Notes and Queries." It consisted in driving the 
cattle onto a neighbor's corn and letting them eat it. It 
must be done on May Eve, and for a whole year a witch 
would have no power over them. 16 

Nissen, the good fairy of the farmers, among the Nor- 
wegians, looked after the cattle and made them productive 
if he was well treated. A dish of porridge was placed 
upon the threshold of the stable for him on Christmas 
morning. When the farmer changes his residence the 
protecting fairy goes with him, riding on top of the load 
which carries his effects. Pictures of this benevolent 

15 " Ancient Legends of Ireland," Lady Wilde, 103, 127, 173. 
16 " British Popular Customs," 222. 



H4 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

guardian adorn agricultural advertisements, and images 
of him are carved and sold in the stores for curios. He 
is represented as a " short, fat, bow-legged man with big 
whiskers and long white hair." 

The poet Herrick gives a charm for protecting the occu- 
pants of the stable from the night hag : 

" Hang up hooks and shears to scare 
Hence the hag that rides the mare, 
Till they be all over wet 
With the mire and the sweat; 
This observed, the manes shall be 
Of your horses all knot-free." 

The elves, or night spirits, which were supposed to have 
ridden the borrowed horses in the night to their places of 
meeting, left them all covered with sweat and foam. They 
rolled up the manes and tails of the horses in knots. " Elf 
all my hair in knots," is the exclamation of Edgar, in 
" King Lear," an allusion to this then commonly accepted 
belief. 17 

On certain festival days the Kunbis of India wash their 
horses and decorate them with flowers, sacrifice a sheep 
to them, and sprinkle them with its blood. It is a popular 
belief in India that the horse once had wings, and that they 
grew formerly where now are the chestnuts or scars on 
its legs. 18 Many people have ascribed supernatural qual- 
ities to the horse. It was believed in England that a horse 
had the power of seeing ghosts, and could cure certain 
diseases. 

In the quaint book of Anthony Herbert the properties 
of a good horse are listed at LJII. They are classified 
as follows: II. parts of a man; II. of a badger; IIII. 
of a lion ; IX. of an ox ; IX. of a hare ; IX. of a fox ; IX. of 

17 Act ii. scene 3. 

1S " Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India," W. Crooke, 318. 



PROTECTING THE HERDS 145 

an ass; and X. of -a woman. Among the last are men- 
tioned " to be of mery chere and to be always besye with 
themouthe." 19 

Saint Anthony of Padua, who flourished in the thir- 
teenth century, and was canonized by Gregory IX., is 
known as the patron and protector of animals. He is 
often accompanied by a pig in the representations of him. 
He is said to have preached to the fishes. From the 
17th to the 23d of January people of all classes from 
princes to peasants took their horses and asses to the 
church of S. Antonia Abbate to be blessed and sprinkled 
with holy water, and it is said that Rosa Bonheur, the 
celebrated painter of animals, always carried upon her 
person an image of the saint as a charm to secure her good 
luck. 

If we may credit the legends of St. Columba the beasts 
and the birds of the forest came at his call, and squirrels 
descended from the trees to nestle in the folds of his 
mantle. St. Goar bade the hinds to come out of the 
woods and be milked, and they came, and the bears brought 
wood for the fire when in Latin they were commanded by 
St. Gall. St. Leonard was the patron of horses and cattle, 
and festivals were held in his honor in the highlands of 
Bavaria on the 6th of November, when the animals 
adorned with fillets and flags were driven in procession 
and attended by the priests with sacred emblems and holy 
banners. 

A cross made of rowan tree was sometimes tied with a 
scarlet thread to the cow's tail, in Westphalia, to guard it 
from evil. The herdsmen rose early on May Day and 
carried to the farm a young rowan tree, with a branch of 
which he struck the cows over the haunches, udder, and 
hindquarters, saying: 

19 " Book of Husbandry," 65. 



146 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

'' Quick, quick, quick ! 
Bring milk into the dugs. 
The sap comes in the beeches, 
The leaf comes on the oak," 20 

and other similar verses, designed to protect the cows from 
witch influence. 

Professor E. P. Evans relates an incident that occurred 
in 1896, not far from Perm, on the Kama, when the bull 
of a peasant having died suddenly, it was declared to be 
the result of witchcraft. The owner demanded a test of 
all the women in the village in order to prove the witch. 
It was proposed that they be made to creep through a 
horse collar, and the plan being approved by the neigh- 
bors of the peasant, it was put into execution, though not 
without some protest on the part of the more corpulent 
women. 21 

A cow in the stable with white feet and white stripes on 
her back has been counted a protection against witches, 
though some stables, it was said, would not endure white 
cattle. They would die off or get crushed. 

A peculiar property attributed to hay stolen the night 
before Christmas and fed to the cattle was that it protected 
the thief from being caught in the future, as well as made 
the animals thrive. When a cow was driven first to pas- 
ture in the spring, a salutary effect was produced by milk- 
ing her through a wreath of ground ivy. Peasants of 
Thuringia led fresh cows over threefold iron to promote 
a good yield of milk, or prevent the interference of 
witches. Creeping between the fore legs of a cow pre- 
vented the cow from losing a horn. Pigs bathed in water 
in which swine had been scalded grew famously. Wends 
set up an oak tree with an iron cock fastened on the top 
and drove the cattle round it to make them thrive. If a 

20 "The Golden Bough," iii. 12. 

21 Popular Science Monthly, liv. 219. 



PROTECTING THE HERDS 147 

person walks down the street with one foot shod and the 
other one bare, all the cattle coming that way are liable to 
fall sick. The old saying that all the cattle stand up 
between eleven and twelve on Christmas night, it is said, 
can only be investigated at the risk of one's life. 

Curious beliefs are noted to account for the occasional 
drying up of the milk of a cow. The milk from two men's 
cows being mixed, one of the cows will dry up. If any 
part of a firstborn calf be roasted the milk of the mother 
will dry up. The Hebrews had a kindred belief that a kid 
must not be seethed in its mother's milk, 22 else inflam- 
mation would be produced in the mother. A beast must 
not be struck with a peeled rod lest it dry up. Circassians 
look upon the pear tree as a protector of the cattle. So 
they carry branches of it home and adore it as a divinity. 
On the day of the autumn festival it is carried into the 
house with great ceremony to the sound of music, and 
covered with candles, and cheese is fastened to its top. 23 

A poisoner of cattle might be detected, according to an 
old belief of the Germans, 24 by sticking thirty pins into the 
heart of the animal and hanging it in the chimney, when, 
probably through the effect of sympathetic magic, the 
poisoner, conscience stricken, made confession. The use 
of asafetida as an antidote to witchcraft is learned from 
the story of the bewitchment of grandmother Eiler's cow. 
A suspicious-appearing woman passed through the yard 
while she was milking. " I was foolish enough," said she, 
" to tell her all about the cow, how gentle she was, how 
much milk she was giving, and all that, and she said I cer- 
tainly had a fine cow. Well, the next morning that cow 
couldn't stand on her feet, and there she lay in the stable 
till father came from the mountain where he was cutting 

22 Exodus xxiii. 19; Deut. xiv. 21. 
23 " The Golden Bough," i. 194. 
24 Grimm, 1824. 



148 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

wood. He said it was all plain enough when I told him 
everything, but he wondered I hadn't had better sense. 
However, he knew just what to do. He rubbed the cow 
all over with asafetida, saying words all the time." And 
the next day when mother Eiler went to the barn the cow 
stood on her four legs eating like a hound. 23 

To learn if the death of an animal was really due to 
witchcraft, the carcass was sometimes burnt in the open 
air. This brought the witch to the spot, the first that 
came. Mr. Rhys relates a story told by a Michael woman 
who watched the burning of a beautiful colt whose death 
was supposed to have been caused by bewitchment. The 
woman affirmed that she saw the witch come to the fire, 
with her shriveled face, and nose and chin in close prox- 
imity. 26 In early times the Manx burnt a live sheep for 
the public good, on May Day. They fastened crosses of 
rowan to the tails of their cattle to guard them from evil 
influences. Highlanders of Scotland burned juniper be- 
fore their cattle. They sprinkled them with urine on the 
first Monday in every quarter. 27 It is told of King Louis 
Phillipe that he never failed to urinate against the left 
hind leg of his horse before mounting, as, according to an 
old cavalry tradition, it had the effect of strengthening the 
leg of the beast and rendering the animal more apt to sus- 
tain the effort made by the rider when jumping upon the 
saddle. 28 In County Cork, Ireland, rusty tin dishes are 
scoured with cow manure which is blessed, and will benefit 
the dishes and bring good luck. Not infrequently keelers 
and other dishes for holding the milk are buried under a 

25 Journal of American Folk-Lore, xiv. 39. 

20 " Celtic Folk-Lore, Welsh and Manx," i. 305. 

27 Pinkerton's " Voyages," iii. 90. 

28 " Scatalogic Rites," J. G. Bourke, 386, on the authority of a personal 
letter from Capt. Henri Jouan of the French navy, who had it from Prince 
of Joinville, son of king Louis. 



PROTECTING THE HERDS 149 

manure heap in the winter when cows are dry and the 
milk dishes empty. In this way they are protected from 
evilly disposed persons who might cast a spell on them and 
bewitch the cows or the milk. 29 

Among other things, in one of the formulas given by 
Reginald Scot for finding the witch when cattle have died 
from witchcraft, he describes a custom of trailing the 
bowels of the animal to the house and into the kitchen, 
where a fire is built and the gridiron set over it, upon which 
are laid the inwards of the animal, and as they wax hot 
so shall the inwards of the witch be affected with the heat 
and pain. 30 

Among Russians, the 23d of April is known as Yegory's 
Day. It is consecrated to St. George of Capadocia. St. 
George has taken the place of older agricultural deities 
in the festivals of Christian times, and appears as the 
patron saint of farmers and herdsmen. He preserves their 
cattle from evils. Upon the day sacred to him the herds 
are first sent out into the open fields after the winter. 
Yegory is represented in White Russia as opening with 
golden keys the soil so long bound up by winter. A song 
of Yegory's Day, as given by Ralston, runs: 

" We have gone around the field, 
We have called Yegory — 

O thou, our brave Yegory, 

Save our cattle, 

In the field and beyond the field, 

In the forest and beyond the forest, 

Under the bright moon, 

Under the red sun, 

From the rapacious wolf, 

From the cruel bear, 

From the cunning beast." sl 
20 " Scatalogic Rites," 200. 
30 " Discoverie of Witchcraft," 198. 
31 " Songs of the Russian People," 231. 



ISO MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

In some parts of Russia, at the feast of the Epiphany, 
sheaves of various kinds of grain are taken into the court- 
yard after the morning service, the cattle are driven up to 
them, and both cattle and grain, are sprinkled with holy 
water. Carrying a padlock three times round the herd 
before letting them into the fields in the spring is another 
ceremonial for their protection. He who carries the lock, 
locks and unlocks it as he goes, saying, " I lock from my 
herd the mouths of the gray wolves with this steel lock." 
It is finally locked and hidden away till the autumn, when 
the cattle are returned to their winter quarters. 32 

In a kindred ceremony of the Bulgarians, a woman takes 
a needle and thread after dark and sews the skirts of her 
dress together while telling her child that she is sewing up 
the mouths and ears and eyes of the wolves so they can- 
not bite or hear the sheep, goats, or pigs. A method of 
protecting cattle from the evil eye in Hoshongabad is 
given by William Crooke. Herdsmen go about in a 
body during the night, singing and begging, and they keep 
the cattle from sleeping. In the morning the white cows 
are stamped with the hand dipped in yellow paint, and the 
red cows with a hand dipped in white paint. Strings of 
peacock's feathers are tied to their horns, and as they are 
driven out with yells an earthen water jar is smashed on 
the last one, and the neck of it is placed on the gateway 
leading to the cattle sheds. In the afternoon the priest 
sprinkles them with water, and they are presumed to be 
henceforth safe from all evil. In Mirzupur they give the 
animals protection by hanging an earthen bell round the 
neck. In Berar a sacred rope is made of twisted grass 
and covered with mango leaves, and the bullocks of the 
village are made to pass under it. The magic power of 
the rope guards from disease and accident. A rope of 

33 "Songs of the Russian People," 208, 395. 



PROTECTING THE HERDS 151 

straw covered with mango leaves may be hung over a 
roadway along which cattle pass, or sometimes two poles 
and a crossbar are erected at the entrance of a village. 
The Dravidians of South Mirzupur make a powerful 
charm by sinking a plowbeam into the ground near by. 33 

Pushan, the Vedic agricultural deity, guarded the cattle 
and prevented them from straying and found them again 
when lost. He was invoked to care for them, to keep 
them from harm, and bring them safe home again. " Re- 
spect for the cow," and " loathing for the pig," have been 
said to be the beginning and end of the religion of a large 
proportion of the masses, both Hindu and Mohammedan, 
in India. 34 

It is learned from the famous Chapter cxxv. of the 
" Book of the Dead " that the Ka of the Egyptians had to 
be able to declare in the Judgment Hall of Osiris that he 
had not slaughtered the cattle set apart for sacrifices, and 
had not driven them from the sacred pastures; but cattle 
which wandered about and were not cared for might be 
led away by anyone for sacrifice. 35 

The regard for and the close relationship with their 
cattle by nomadic people have often been noted by writers. 
In the sacred hymns of Zoroaster the followers of the 
prophet are often reminded of their obligations to have 
kindly care over their animals. It is a moral and religious 
duty, the neglect of which may be followed by the most 
serious consequences to them. The destruction or loss of 
their herds would drive them back to pillage and murder, 
and make them like the freebooters of whom they com- 
plained. 36 

83 " Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India," 377, 378. 
34 " Primitive Civilizations," i. 147, note. 

35 " Papyrus of Sayings," (1330-1300 B. C.) ; "Oldest Books in the 
World," Isaac Myer, 263. 
36 "The Gathas of Zoroaster," Lawrence H. Mills, Yasnas xxviii and li. 



i 5 2 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

A story is told of a negro cattle driver in Martinique 
who left his herd in care of a plaster image of the Virgin, 
and, returning later, found them strayed in all direc- 
tions. In his anger he rushed upon the image, breaking 
it from its base and inflicting numerous lashes with his 
whip upon it. For this offense he was tried and con- 
victed, and sentenced to prison for life. 37 

It has been said of Neilgherry herdsmen that if the cow 
was taken from them their whole society would go astray 
and fall to pieces. Says Elie Reclus : " The devotional 
care with which they surround their herds is their worship, 
their religion." Each Toda village owns a sacred herd, 
led by a bell cow whose descent in the female line is from 
an illustrious or sacred cow. Her successor is consecrated 
by the priest, who, morning and evening for three succes- 
sive days, swings the bell before it is fastened upon her, 
saying: "How fair was thy mother! How much milk 
she gave ! Be not less generous ! Henceforth thou shalt 
be a divinity amongst us." 38 

Among pastoral African tribes the animals were looked 
upon as sacred or kindred beings, to be killed only in time 
of need, or on exceptional occasions. It is customary 
when they kill their cattle for food to do it without shed- 
ding blood. Care is taken lest their blood fall upon the 
ground, as sorcerers might then make evil use of it, and 
might bring sickness and destruction to the rest of the 
herd. The Hebrews were not permitted to use as offer- 
ings animals that were blind, or broken, or maimed, or 
having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, " or anything super- 
fluous or lacking in its parts." 39 These defects were 
proofs of the evil in them, and possibly were believed to 

37 "Two Years in the French West Indies," Lafcadio Hearn, 178. 

38 " Primitive Folk," 217, 218. 
3D Lev. xxii. 22. 



PROTECTING THE HERDS 153 

have been brought upon them by magical influences, or the 
work of evil spirits. If maimed or imperfect cattle were 
used at the sacrificial feasts, might it not give greater 
power to the evil ones over the rest of their herds? 

A woman might not enter the kraal of the Kaffirs ; and 
to defile it was a capital offense. 40 The prohibition of 
woman from their kraals was probably connected with the 
belief held by some South African tribes that if a woman 
in her courses drank milk from one of their cows, that cow 
would die. The milk coming in contact with one so dan- 
gerously affected might transfer the evil to the cow that 
gave the milk, and thence to the whole herd by sympa- 
thetic magic. In like manner a woman of the Omaha 
Indians at such times was not permitted to touch a horse, 
as it was likely to weaken and impoverish the animal. 

Among some Kaffir tribes when an animal is killed by 
lightning the whole village is regarded as dangerously 
infected, and a sort of primitive quarantine is established. 
For some months none of their cattle are allowed to be dis- 
posed of, either by gift or sale, and all the people are 
subjected to an inoculation to restore them to their normal 
condition ; an animal sacrifice is made, and wood and roots 
of certain kinds are burned to charcoal, which is powdered 
and inserted into incisions made in various parts of the 
body. 41 It seems to have been the danger to their own 
cattle rather than to others, which they feared, if they 
came in contact before the proper rites had been observed. 
The lightning was believed to have brought them into 
communication with sacred influences, most likely, and it 
would render them unsafe if they came in contact with 
other animals less holy before the ceremonial disinfection 
had taken place. 



""Religion of the Semites," 378. 
""The Golden Bough," ii. 363. 



154 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

In early times sacrifices were offered to the wolves in 
some Eastern countries, to induce them to spare the flocks. 
The Letts sacrificed a goat to protect their flocks, at or 
about Christmas, at the crossroads. Early legends say 
that the Irish sacrificed the firstborn of every species to a 
deity called Crom-Cruaith — a stone capped with gold 
around which stood twelve other stones, representing him. 
Early legends indicate that a child was at one time sacri- 
ficed to St. Patrick on his day, the 17th of March, though 
in later times an animal was substituted; it was also a 
common custom to affix large crosses made of flowers and 
straw to the doorposts, and sacrifice a black cock. It was 
thought necessary that blood should be spilled. The 
Druids offered the firstlings of their flocks to the sun god, 
according to the legendary lore of them. 42 

The Passover was the most ancient of the Hebrew rites. 
It is believed to date from the period of their nomadic 
life, and to be older than the agricultural feast of unleav- 
ened bread, with which it was associated later, and to 
belong to a time when in their desert life they relied for 
sustenance upon manna and their cattle. 43 The wander- 
ing people looked upon their cattle as sacred, and the first- 
lings of them as belonging specially to the Deity, with 
whom they partook in a sacrificial feast in the spring as 
an expression of their thankfulness for the annual increase 
of their flocks and herds. " All that.openeth the matrix 
is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether 
ox or sheep, that is male," said Jahveh. 44 The firstborn 
child was ransomed with the sacrifice of a lamb, though, 
says Robertson Smith, " the paschal lamb is unknown to 
Deuteronomy and Ezekiel, . . . and its ritual in 

""Legends of Ireland," Lady Wilde, 216. 

43 " Religion of Israel to the Exile," Carl Budde, 74. 

" Exodus, xxxiv, 19. 



PROTECTING THE HERDS 155 

its final form cannot be older than the Exile." 45 The 
prophets testify to the sacrifice of the children of the 
Hebrews, according to custom, in the centuries before the 
exile. 

" Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, 
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? " asks 
Micah. 46 It is unquestioned that children were offered in 
fire to their deities by other Semitic peoples in close prox- 
imity to the Hebrews. And it is suggested by Professor 
Frazer that the lamb was substituted for the firstborn 
child after the development of more humane sentiment. 47 
That the faithful observance of the annual rite had much 
to do with the prosperity of their, herds and flocks and 
their families, according to their belief, can hardly be 
questioned. 

Among the cattle breeders of the Babylonians it was of 
great importance to have familiar knowledge of the 
lore of the omen tablets. The birth in the flocks and herds 
of deformed animals or freaks and monstrosities was care- 
fully noted, and was believed to be portentous of good 
or evil. The death of the owner and the destruction of his 
house followed the birth of five lambs at one birth. De- 
crease of population and devastation were foretold by the 
birth in the flock of one with more than four legs, or lack- 
ing an ear, though the extent of the impending misfortune 
might depend upon whether it was the right or the left 
ear. 

It was the same with colts. The birth of one with 
a shortened leg was ominous of calamity. If the right legs 
were lacking it meant destruction; though it forboded a 
long reign of the king if the foal was born without left 

45 " Old Testament in the Jewish Church," 448, note. 

"Micah vi. 7. 

47 " The Golden Bough," ii. 49. 



156 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

legs. Domestic trouble was indicated by a lacking hoof on 
the right foreleg; and a dog's hoof on a female colt fore- 
boded misfortune to the land, though one with a lion's 
claw signified expansion of territory, and one without a 
tail meant death to the king. 48 

Numerous cases reported by Professor E. P. Evans 49 
in recent years give evidence that belief in the bewitchment 
of cattle still survives. In an article published in 1895, 
the author says Theresia Kleitsch was crucified about a 
year before in Rekeseley, Hungary, for bewitching the 
stalls of her neighbors and causing their cattle to die of 
murrain. In June, 1885, Xaver Endtes was sent to jail 
for three weeks at . Kempton, Bavaria, for swindling 
seventeen marks out of a peasant for casting devils out 
from his cattle. The sorcerer kindled a fire in the stable 
and heated two iron bars red-hot, then poured on them 
a quantity of milk, and told the peasant the film of the 
scalded milk was the skin of the witch, which he had ren- 
dered harmless in the future. A few years later, while 
the people of Lupest, Hungary, were rejoicing over the 
death of a reputed witch, a villager's cow mysteriously 
died suddenly. An investigation by the Common Council 
showed that the cow had been bewitched by the dead 
woman, and to prevent other like calamities it was ordered 
that a stallion should be made to leap over her grave. As 
the frightened horse could not be induced to execute the 
decree, the Council further ordered that the body of the 
witch should be exhumed and stabbed with red-hot pitch- 
forks, which was apparently effective, as nothing more was 
heard of the trouble. In 1892 Victoria Siefritz was 
charged with bewitching the stall of the burgomaster in 
Baden, and causing an epidemic of hoof disease, and in the 

48 " Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," Morris Jastrow, 395. 
49 The Popular Science Monthly, xlviii. 73. 



PROTECTING THE HERDS 157 

same year Elizabeth Horrath, a maidservant in Bavaria, 
charged her own mother with being a witch and riding 
on the back of a cow which went dry afterwards. In 
the latter case, though neighboring families believed the 
charge true, the court held otherwise and imprisoned the 
complainant. 



CHAPTER IX 

HEALING 
"The mind doth shape itself to its own wants." 1 

" As long as people had faith, in plain English believed, 
that they could be magically cured of a disease, they 
thought that they or others were so cured," wrote Charles 
Kingsley. " As long as they believed that witches could 
curse them, they believed that an old woman in the next 
parish had overlooked them, their cattle, and their crops; 
and that therefore they were poor, diseased, and unfortu- 
nate." 2 As in the first century, in the country of the Gada- 
renes, men were healed by driving the evil spirits that 
afflicted them into swine and destroying the animals, so 
are the Tibetans now made whole at the dawn of the 
twentieth century. Mr. Landor tells us that the Hunyas 3 
believe that if a man falls ill the only way to cure him is 
to drive away the evil spirit that has entered into him, to 
satisfy its craving for blood. If the illness is slight, to 
please and decoy the spirit a small animal, as a dog or 
bird, is placed near the sick man. If the illness is more 
serious, a larger animal, as a sheep or yak, is produced, 
and exorcisms are made. A bowl of water is whirled three 
or four times over the sick man's head, and then over the 
animal, and then poured on the head of the latter. These 
circles and certain mystic words have power to draw away 
the evil spirit from the patient and cause it to enter the 

1 Joanna Baillie. 

2 " The Hermits," 204. 

8 " In the Forbidden Land," A. Henry Savage Landor, i. 293. 

158 



HEALING 159 

brain of the animal, and pouring the water on the head of 
the animal prevents its returning. When the spirit is made 
captive and safely lodged in the animal, the latter is hur- 
riedly dragged away to a crossing of four roads, where 
a grave is dug and it is buried alive. The spirit remains 
to suck the blood of its later victim, and the patient rapidly 
recovers. Sometimes if the animal is small, as a bird, it 
is torn into four pieces and a piece thrown in each of the 
crossing ways. To prevent the return of the evil one the 
Shokas place branches of thorn and small flying prayers 
in each road. 

The sacrifice of a life or something bought with a 
price was an effective charm for averting calamities in 
primitive conceptions. David bought the threshing floor 
of Araunah, and his oxen, and built an altar and sacrificed 
upon it, and so stayed the plague which was ravaging the 
land. We are told that the price paid was fifty shekels of 
silver, for the king refused to accept them as a gift, or to 
make use of that which had cost him nothing. 4 

That disease and death were brought upon the cattle by 
the machinations of evil spirits, and that this could be 
counteracted by ceremonies and sacrifices, and by appeals 
to deities more powerful than these evilly disposed spiritual 
beings, was, as we have seen, a common belief in certain 
stages of culture. It has also been an accepted belief that 
murrain was sometimes brought upon the herds by the 
beneficent deities themselves, as punishments for transgres- 
sions or neglect in devotions. Jahveh even fixed an 
appointed time for the destruction of the cattle and sheep 
and asses of the Egyptians. Nothing belonging to the 
Israelites would be harmed. " And the Lord did that 
thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died," 
and when the messenger of Pharaoh was sent to investigate 

4 2 Sam. xxiv. 21-25. 



160 MAGIC* AND HUSBANDRY 

it, " behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israel- 
ites dead." 5 

When a destructive murrain invaded the herds in the 
reign of Emperor Charlemagne it was attributed to Gri- 
moald, the Duke of Benevento, one of his enemies, who 
was charged with sending his emissaries throughout the 
land to distribute a magic powder. Large numbers of 
unfortunate people suspected of having assisted in it were 
captured and put to death. 6 

The belief has been a most common one that the herd 
might be saved by the sacrifice of one of their number, and 
it is undoubtedly closely allied with that of the Tibetans. 
The victim selected for destruction was supposed to bear 
away from the herd the evil spirit that afflicted them. 
The Hunyas entice into an animal the spirit that troubles 
the man. The Russians have sometimes reversed the 
process, and expelled the devils from the herd by trans- 
ferring them to a human being, a man or woman chosen 
by lot, who was then buried alive with a black cat or a 
cock. Sometimes the cow-death was reputed to wander 
through a Russian village in the form of a black dog or 
cat, as a mottled calf, or as a tall, shaggy man with hoofs 
instead of feet. To expel the murrain they carried round 
the village a picture of St. Vlas, the shepherd successor to 
the pre-Christian cattle-god Volos, and sang as they 
went : 



"Death, Oh thou Cow-Death, 
Depart from our village, 
From the stable, from the court! 
Through our village goes holy Vlasy, 
With incense, with taper, 
With burning embers . . . 

Exodus ix. 4-7. 
' " History of the Inquisition," H. C. Lea, iii. 415. 



HEALING 161 

Come not to our village ! 
Meddle not with our cows, 
Nut-brown, chestnut, star-browed, 
White-teated, white-uddered, 
Grumpled-horned, one-horned." 7 

Hermes, protector of the flocks for the Greeks, carried 
round the flock a ram to ward off murrain. Esthonians 
buried one of the herd under the stable door, that the 
plague might have its victim and the rest be spared. It 
is said that in Northhamptonshire, England, and in Corn- 
wall, as late as the eighteenth century, it was believed that 
killing a calf would drive away the murrain. A remedy 
for abortion, practiced in Suffolk, was to bury a slunk calf 
in the highway over which cattle frequently passed. Near 
Stuttgart, during a cattle plague, an old woman advised 
that the parish bull should be buried alive, and accord- 
ingly, wreathed in flowers, they led him in state to a deep 
pit. Three times he broke his way out, but the third time 
he choked. 8 In time of plague the first one of the herd that 
fell was sometimes buried with a young shoot of a willow 
planted in its mouth. When the tree grows up it is never 
polled or lopped, but grows in its own way, and guards the 
farm from pestilence in the future. In Ruthania the first 
victim might be burned, with a live cock, a dog, and a cat 
tied to its tail. In the Nijegorod government the Siberian 
plague is kept at a distance by driving an ash stake into 
the ground at a crossways, and scattering about the village 
the remains of a dog that has been calcined for the 
purpose. 9 

Near Durham, England, the legs and thighs of a dead 
calf were hung in a chimney by a rope to stay a fatal sick- 

7 Ralston's " Songs of the Russian Feople," 400. 

8 Grimm, 1688; Brand, 750. 

9 " Songs of the Russian People," 395. 



1 62 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

ness among the calves. In the Scotch Highlands bulls 
were sacrificed to cure sickness in 1678. In 1800 a lamb 
was burned in Cornwall to save the flock. To stop disease 
cattle were burned in Wales in 18 12, and hi England in 

1837. 10 

In 1534 Sir Anthony Herbert gave this remedy for the 
murrain: Take the bare head of the beast that dies and 
put it on a long pole, and set the pole in a hedge " fast 
bounden to a stake by the Hyghe-waye syde that everye 
man that rydethe or goeth that waye, maye se and knowe 
by that signe, that there is sycknes of cattell in the town- 
shyp." Sir Anthony does not express absolute confidence 
in the success of the remedy, but records that " the hus- 
bandes holde an opynyon, that it shall the rather cease." n 
A Hindu cure for the murrain is to hire a man of a lower 
caste to take the evil upon himself and bear it away into 
the jungle. They turn his face from the village and brand 
him with a red-hot sickle, and the murrain goes with him. 

In Queen Elizabeth's time, an owner of cattle, having 
lost one, threw the next that died into a pit and consumed 
it with fagots, " after which all his cattle did well." Bury- 
ing a dead horse, ox, or sheep, under the threshold of the 
stable was thought to preserve the rest of the animals. 
When many cattle died in Scotland the rest were driven 
past a tub of water containing two enchanted stones, and 
each head was sprinkled with the liquid. If one was 
unable to walk and likely to die it was drawn to a hole 
prepared, into which it was put, and all the rest were made 
to go over that place, and in this " devilisch maner " they 
were cured, as chronicled in the reports of the trial of 

10 " Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England," William 
Henderson, 167, 149; Campbell's "Notes on the Spirit Basis of Belief and 
Custom," 352. 

11 " Book of Husbandry," 34. 



HEALING 163 

Johnne Brughe, in 1643. 12 ^ n Ireland a species of cater- 
pillar was regarded as injurious to the cattle, and images 
of it were made use of to protect against it, and cure the 
murrain. A large silver one used for that purpose was 
found in Cork County in 1845. Bulgarians have a tra- 
dition that when the spirit of the plague wishes to leave 
the locality someone is notified in a dream, that they may 
prepare refreshments for it on its departure, and he pre- 
pares bread smeared with honey, and, with salt and a flask 
of wine, he goes to a designated place and deposits them. 13 
Nine leaves of the male crowfoot bruised on a stone 
that never was moved, and mixed with salt and Spittle and 
plastered in the ear of a beast, was an ancient Irish cure 
for sick beasts. The little arrowheads known as elf stones 
were valuable charms. Crystal charms are still in use 
to heal cattle with among the Irish. A rock crystal a 
little larger than an orange, circled in the middle by a 
silver band, is preserved at Currahmore, the seat of the 
Marquis of Waterford, which has great repute in healing 
cattle attacked with murrain. The stone is said to have 
been brought from the Holy Land, and to have been a gift 
from Godfrey de Bouillon. The cure is effected by plac- 
ing the ball in a running stream, through which the cattle 
are driven backwards and forwards. It is still sent for 
from distant parts of the country. 14 The elf stone is 
generally found near a rath, and after being once lifted 
up by a spade, the tradition is that it must never again 
touch the earth, or its healing virtue will be gone. A 
heart-shaped pebble known as the " Lee " stone is memor- 
able in Scotland for its healing power in curing the bite of 
a mad dog. Of course it has a legendary history to account 

""The Darker Superstitions of Scotland," 185. 

""Credulities Past and Present," 326; "Songs of the Russians," 253. 

14 " Ancient Legends of Ireland," 209. 



1 64 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

for its remarkable virtues. It was part of the ransom of 
a Moorish chieftain captured by the parties who went with 
the heart of Robert Bruce to the Holy Land. The way of 
using it was to plunge it into water a certain number of 
times; the cattle afterwards drank of the water and were 
healed. It was borrowed by the people of Newcastle to 
cure the plague in the reign of Charles I., who left six 
thousand pounds as a pledge for the loan of it, so great 
was its" value. Lady Baird is also said to have been cured 
of hydrophobia by drinking of the water in which it had 
been immers-ed, and bathing in it. 15 

Various diseases were charged to the elf shots, i. e., the 
stone arrowheads of the old inhabitants of Scotland. 
They were said to be the weapons of the fairies. For- 
tunately the elf stone itself was a cure for the wounds it 
caused. If the sick cattle were touched with the stone, 
or drank the water in which one had been boiled, they 
were made well again. The adder stone was likewise 
reputed to be possessed of similar power. Thomas Pen- 
nant, in his tour in Scotland in 1769, was shown one by 
Captain Archibald Campbell — a spheroid set in silver, to 
see which people came a hundred miles, and carried home 
with them some of the water in which it had been dipped. 16 
Cattle injured by the shrewmouse were cured by giving 
them water in which the adder stone had been dipped. 
The English poet Collins, referring to the belief in elf 
stones in the Highlands, says : 

" There every herd by sad experience knows 
How wing'd with fate their elf-shot arrows fly, 
When the sick ewe her summer-food foregoes, 
Or stretched on earth the heart-smit heifers lie." 

The Finns had prayers against the effects of elf shots, 

""Credulities Past and Present," 350. 
10 Pinkerton's "Voyages," iii. 51. 



HEALING 165 

in which they implored that the injury might be forced 
down into Tuoni's turf and not into a human being's skin 
or into a creature's hide. 17 Seed of dock and Scotch wax 
were used for elf shots while the priest sang twelve masses 
over the horse or beast and sprinkled it with holy water, 
according to Saxon Leechdoms. 

The shrewmouse, now regarded as a most inoffensive 
creature, was formerly thought dangerous to come in con- 
tact with. Cattle and horses seized with any lameness 
were thought to have come into touch with this little 
animal. The Romans were convinced of its deadly 
nature, and believed it to contain a poison like a spider. 
Various antidotes were used to counteract its harmful 
effects, among which was the shrew-ash, described by Gil- 
bert White as a tree whose twigs or branches gently 
applied to the limbs of cattle will immediately relieve the 
pain which is suffered on account of the running of a shrew- 
mouse over the part. Our wise forefathers therefore 
always kept a shrew-ash near at hand. It was prepared 
by selecting a large ash and boring or otherwise making 
a hole in its trunk, and, after certain incantations were 
performed, a shrewmouse was thrust into the hole alive, 
and the opening securely plugged. Mr. White says there 
stood by the corner of the church at Selborne " a very old 
grotesque hollow pollard-ash, which for ages had been 
looked upon with no small veneration as a shrew-ash." ls 

Creeping through tunneled earth, hollow stones, or 
cloven trees, was believed to be a salutary practice, not only 
for cattle in sickness, but also for mankind. The disease 
would thus be transferred to the stone or soil. The split 
oak, particularly if it was a young oak, cured sick sheep 

""Pre- and Proto-Historic Finns," John Abercromby, ii. 199. 
""Gilbert White's Letters to Daines Barrington," xxviii, xxxiii; "Nat- 
ural History Lore and Legend," F. Edward Hulme, 180. 



1 66 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

if they crawled through it. An incurable disease known 
to the Servians as me til is referred to by Grimm. 19 Once 
the Germans are said to have caught the devil and asked 
of him a cure for the metil, and were told by him that when 
all the sheep were dead but one they must carry the remain- 
ing one round the pen and then no more would die but 
that one. 

Brand writes of a practice in the Orkneys of sprinkling 
cattle, oxen, and sheep with a special mixture known as 
forespoken water, and of the use of charms which, by 
repeating, would stop bleeding in the throats of oxen and 
sheep. 20 Herrick's poem, " The Spell," alludes to the 
use of the mixture for sprinkling to drive away evil : 

"Holy water come and bring; 
Cast in salt for seasoning; 
Set the brush for sprinkling; 
Sacred spittle bring ye hither ; ' 
Meal and it now mix together; 
And a little oil to either; 
Give the tapers here their light; 
Ring the Saints' bell to affright 
Far from hence the evil sprite." 

Near the village of Culdoff, County Donegal, Ireland, 
there is a deep part of the river where diseased cattle were 
wont to be plunged, while at the same time prayers were 
offered to St. Bodham to intercede for them. To heal a 
sickly beast the Irish housewife waved a live coal over its 
head. 21 Ralston describes a Russian rite for preventing 
the murrain from entering a village. Men and cattle 
are shut up in the village while the women in their shifts, 
with hair hanging over their shoulders, and carrying 

""Teutonic Mythology,"" 1 163. 
20 " Antiquities," 732. 

""Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland," W. G. Wood-Martin, i. 
33, 281. 



HEALING 167 

shovels and tongs, yoke the oldest woman to a plow, which 
is drawn three times around the village while all follow and 
sing. The malignant spirits are supposed not to be able 
to cross the lines thus drawn and get at the cattle in the vil- 
lage. A young girl sometimes carries an image of St. Vlas, 
and an old woman in her shift rides on a broomstick, while 
other women shout and dance and sing, or other old 
women with lighted fir-splinters circle round a widow 
clothed with a horse collar only, and as they halt at each 
farmyard they cry: " Ai ! Ai ! Cut, hew the Cow-Death! 
There she goes ! " If a cat or a dog run out, it is taken for 
the cattle plague and killed. Again two camp fires are 
lighted at midnight at the ends of a street in a village, 
and girls in their shifts drag a plow to one of them, carry- 
ing a holy picture. A black cock is taken to the other by 
the older women in black petticoats and dirty shifts. The 
cock is carried three times round the flames, one of the 
women runs to the other end of the village with it while 
the rest cry out to the black disease: " Cattle Plague! 
Cattle Plague! Spare our cattle! Behold we offer thee 
a cock! " The fowl is thrown into the burning heap, 
the girls dance round it, and the plow is drawn three times 
round the village. A similar ceremony is reported at 
Altmark. They plow round a village, and sit under the 
plow, placed upright, and this enables anyone to see the 
witches. In some villages bits of a plow are hung up 
over the doorway through which cattle pass. No demon 
can then approach them. 22 

In Argyleshire threads with three knots are used to cure 
ailments in man and beast. The witch healer rubs the 
cow with the knotted thread, and burns two of the knots 
in the. fire, saying: " I put the disease and sickness on top 

""Songs of the Russians," 395; " Demonology and Devil Lore," M. D. 
Conway, i. 268. 



168 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

of the fire," and ties the rest of the thread around the tail 
of the cow so as to conceal the remaining knot. As 
knots of some witch are supposed to cause the sickness, 
undoing them, or counteracting the effects of them with 
other knots, works a cure. The shadow of a man or beast 
being a vital part of the living being, an injury to it en- 
dangers the life and health. A small snail that frequents 
the limestone hills of Perak is thought to suck the blood 
of cattle through their shadows, and the beasts grow lean 
and sicken, and die from the loss of blood. 23 

We learn from Plutarch that when severe drouth 
brought on pestilence the priests of the Egyptians took out 
the sacred animals quietly by night and threatened them, 
and if this was not sufficient to cause the trouble to abate, 
the animals were killed. 24 On account of its association 
with their semi-divine persons, extraordinary and super- 
natural powers were attributed to the regalia of kings, and 
in some districts of Celebes, when plague threatens cattle 
or men the king's regalia is smeared with buffalo's blood 
and carried about. If the beast of a Hessian farmer 
breaks its leg, he binds up the broken leg of a chair or table 
with bandages and splints, and for nine days the bandaged 
leg must not be touched, after which the leg of the beast 
will be healed. 25 Why the treatment is not given directly 
to the leg of the animal is not easily explained, except 
that it would be more difficult to do, and operating on the 
leg of the chair, by mimetic or imitative magic, would be 
as effectual. 

Forty years ago, according to a recent writer in the Lon- 
don Spectator, if a nail pierced the frog of a horse's foot 
the driver did nothing to the foot, but took the nail and 

23 " The Golden Bough," i. 287. 

24 " Isis and Osiris," 73. 

25 "The Golden Bough," i. 59, 142. 



HEALING 169 

greased it and placed it on a shelf in the stable to keep 
the sore made in the foot from festering. 

When a horse falls sick in Lirsa they kill a fowl quickly 
and let the warm blood of the fowl flow in the horse's 
mouth. Unless this can be done quickly the man will take 
off his clothes and strike the beast seven times with his shoe 
across the forehead. 26 It is most likely that these are rites 
to frighten away or compel the demon that causes the 
sickness to let go of his victim. The blood of the fowl, 
the sacred number of blows, the condition of nudity, all 
suggest that this is the purpose. 

The following cure for bots in a horse is preserved in 
the treasure house of Reginald Scot: Three days together 
before sunrise repeat, " In the name of God the Father, 
the Son and the Holy Ghost, I conjure thee, O worm, by 
God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, that thou 
neither eat nor drink the flesh, blood or bones of this horse, 
and that thou hereby may be made as patient as Job and as 
good as St. John the Baptist when he baptized Christ in 
the Jordan," and then say pater nosters and aves in the 
right ear of the horse, to the glory of the Trinity. In 
the same work it is told that an old woman cured cattle 
by touching them (for a penny and a loaf), and saying: 

" My loaf in my lap, 
My penny in my purse, 
Thou art never the better 
And I am never the worse." * 

The sowthistle used to be tied to horses that they might 
not tire out. The legend of its discovery by Charles the 
Great says that an angel appeared to him in a dream and 
bade him shoot an arrow in the air, and whatever it lighted 
upon would cure the plague. When the emperor shot the 

28 " Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India," 4.1. 
21 Book xii. chap. xiv. 



170 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

arrow In the morning it lighted on the sowthistle, and the 
plague disappeared on using it. It was also nailed inside 
the swine-trough that the animals might eat over it and 
receive its benefits. 28 

A work written in the sixteenth century contains the 
following charm : 

" Take me a Napkyn folte 
With the byas of a bolte; 
For the healing of a colte 

No better thynge can be; 
For Lampas and for Bottes 
Take me Saynt Wilfride's knottes, 
And holy Saynt Thomas Lottes, 

On my Lyfe I warrande ye." * 

St. Anthony healed the hogs; St. Hubert, the dogs; St. 
Loy looked after horses and kine, and St. Pelagius, the 
oxen. A sixteenth century comedy says: 

" Lo here is a belle to hange upon your hogge, 
And save your cattell from the bytinge of a dogge." 

On St. Stephen's day, December 26th, it was formerly 
held that it was good to bleed the horse. 

" For this being done upon this day, they say doth do them good, 
And keepes them from all maladies and sicknesse through the yeare." 

Tusser says of the custom : 

" Yer Christmas be passed, let horses be let blood, 
For manie a purpose it doth them much good ; 
The day of St. Steeven, old fathers did use, 
If that do mislike thee, some other day chuse." 

Among receipts and disbursements of the canons of St. 
Mary in Huntingdon, for 15 17, is this entry: " Item, for 
letting our horses blede in Chrystmasse Weke iiijd." 30 
Blessings were also implored upon the pastures on St. 

28 Grimm, 1208. 

29 Quoted by Brand from " Bale's Interlude." 

80 Brand, 288. " Dyer's Customs," 492. Grimm, 660. 



HEALING 171 

Stephen's Day. On this day Finns throw a bit of silver 
into the trough out of which the horses drink, thinking it 
contributes to their welfare. The Pope's stud was 
physicked and bled, and the blood saved to be used as a 
remedy in various disorders. A Welsh ceremony on St. 
Stephen's Day, which consists in whipping one another's 
legs till the blood flows, is probably associated in some way 
with the bleeding of the horses, and both are modified 
forms of some old sacrificial rites supposed to promote 
the welfare of horses and cattle. It is probably connected 
with ancient horse worship, as is the custom of hanging 
heads of horses in the stable to keep off cattle plague, and 
of putting the head of a horse in the fodder in the crib 
to curb the power of the night-hag that was wont to ride 
the horse to exhaustion. St. Eloy, in the seventh century, 
condemned the hanging of amulets " on the neck of man 
or beast," for even though they were called holy things 
and contained words of Scripture they were fraught, " not 
with the remedy of Christ, but with the poison of the 
Devil." 31 

In the Holyrudhous Kirk Session Register, April 6th, 
1 641, Mr. Dalyell has found a cure for a distempered 
horse which consists of the laying on of the hand, and 
uttering: 

" Krie bittershes the bitt 
In the tung, the eye, the hart, — that's worst 
Other thrie thy beit man be 
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holie Ghost." M 

A healer in recent times, in Kentucky, having been called 
upon to cure a case of bots, rubbed the animal nine times 
from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail while repeat- 
ing a charm, then slapped the animal on the sides, and 



""Credulities Past and Present," 188. 
""The Darker Superstitions of Scotland," 23. 



172 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

assured the owner that the horse would be up and eating 
grass in half an hour. 33 

In ancient times frogs were held to be valuable medicine 
for both man and beast, and marvelous power was credited 
to them. A live one administered to a dog destroyed the 
power of barking, and a liniment made of a decoction of 
frogs and water cured itch-scab in horses, and after orte 
treatment the cure was permanent. 34 

To prolong the life of an aged and decrepit man seemed 
useless and absurd among savages and some civilized 
nations of the past, and the same feeling towards animals 
past their better days still largely exists among enlightened 
people, though it is true that in some countries, from a very 
ancient period, hospitals have been in existence for diseased 
and decrepit beasts. In India there are asylums for such 
animals, supported by public charity and private munifi- 
cence. In ancient Egypt were hospitals for superannu- 
ated cats. In large European cities there are refuges for 
stray and homeless cats and dogs. Ellen M. Gifford 
founded at Brighton, in England, a refuge for the sus- 
tenance of needy animals, and Miss Lindo a hospital for 
consumptive and worn-out horses, near London. In the 
contract for the white elephant which Mr. Barnum pur- 
chased of King Thibo, of Siam, the king stipulated that the 
rich buyer should love and cherish the sacred beast, make 
its life pleasant, and keep it safe from pain or injury. Yet 
it is probably true, that in the main the care and protection 
of domestic animals, even in modern times, is largely 
dependent upon their marketable value or usefulness to the 
owner. Societies for the protection of animals from the 
cruelties of man are essentially the product of modern 
times. 

33 Journal of American Folk-Lore, xiv. 30. 
M Pliny, xxxii. 50. 



CHAPTER X 

FIRES 

" Yes, we beseech for Thy Fire through its holiness strong, O Ahura, 
Most swift it is, and most mighty to the believer shining for succour; 
But for the hater, O Mazda, it showeth with javelins vengeance." 1 

In most primitive mythologies fire is assumed to have 
been primarily the specific property of the gods, and many 
webs of fable are woven to explain its origin among men. 
Daring heroes, like Prometheus among the Greeks, and 
the New Zealand Maui, have stolen it from the gods and 
given it to men. In the Edda it is the brother of the 
wind and sea. According to some traditions it was 
brought from heaven by a little bird. There was a belief 
in the north of England that an angel struck a tree and 
fire escaped from it. The poet Lucretius says that light- 
ning first brought flame down upon the earth to mortals, 
and from thence all the fire in the world is spread abroad, 
though it must not be forgotten that when branching trees 
shaken by the wind press against the boughs of other trees 
fire excited by the friction is elicited. 2 Fire has been rep- 
resented as the soul of the universe and the source of life, 
as the common element of gods and their creatures, as the 
great purifier, and hence the dispeller of darkness and 
demons, the protector of mankind. It was the mediator 
between gods and men, whose judgments were manifested 
in ordeals by fire, and through sacred oracles which con- 
tained ever-burning fires, as among Peruvians, Mexicans, 
and the Roman Vestals. " The fire shall ever be burning 

1 " The Gathas of Zoroaster," Yasna xxxiv. Dr. Lawrence H. Mills. 
a " The Nature of Things," v. 1090. 

173 



174 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

upon the altar; it shall never go out." 3 A never ceasing 
fire burned in the temple of Pan at Arcadia. 4 It is still 
kept up by the Parsis. Perpetual lights burn at the 
shrines of Christian saints. 

In many traditions deities manifested themselves to 
mortals through the medium of fire, or were encompassed 
with it. The Israelites beheld Jahveh in the burning bush, 
and he descended from Sinai in the midst of flames, thun- 
ders, and lightnings. To Ezekiel, Isaiah, and St. John he 
came in the midst of fire. As a pillar of fire he led his 
people through the wilderness. He is a consuming fire. 5 
Fire resides in all things that have life, say the sacred 
writers of the Hindus. The whole world was once a 
globe of fire, according to the belief of some California 
Indians, but the fire passed into the trees, and then only 
came out by rubbing two pieces of wood together. The 
savage looked upon the trees as reservoirs of hidden fire. 
The same word in some Australian languages means wood 
and fire. Two pieces of wood, one of which figuratively 
was male and the other female, produced it when rubbed 
together. In the Highlands of Scotland this wild or 
forced fire, known as needfire, counteracted the effects of 
sorcery, and healed their sick cattle. If other fires were 
extinguished and re-kindled from the sacred flame, it were 
well for them. When their cattle were made to smell of 
it they escaped from the plague and murrain. Boughs of 
many sorts of wood were sometimes rubbed together to 
produce the needfire. Mr. Martin in 171 6 described the 
method of making a fire called Tin-egin on the Isle of 
Lewis, and the use of it in curing murrain in the cattle. 
All the fires in the parish were extinguished, and eighty- 

* Leviticus, vi. 13. 

4 Pausanias, viii. 37. 

c Ex. iii. 2; xix. 18; Deut. iv. 24; Isaiah, vi. 4; Ezekiel i. 4; Rev. i. 14. 



FIRES 175 

one married men were gathered together, and, subdivided 
into sections of nine, they took turns in rubbing one plank 
against another till fire was produced. Each family took 
some of it and rekindled the fire upon its hearth, over 
which a pot of water was quickly heated and sprinkled 
on the diseased animals. Another custom noted by the 
author in the same Isle was that of making a fiery circle 
round horses, cattle, corn, and other crops belonging to the 
family; and a man carrying fire in his right hand went 
around the circle. He says the ceremony was known as 
" dessil," from the right hand, which in the ancient lan- 
guage was called " dess." This rite, said the author, at 
that time had not been in use for forty years, though it was 
attempted in the village of Shadie sixteen years before, 
when it unfortunately proved fatal to the one performing 
the rite, for the following night his horses, cattle, and corn 
were consumed with fire. 6 The power of needfire was 
quickened if two brothers or two of the same Christian 
name participated in its production. 

Colonists took their fire with them when they were to 
found a new colony, and if it was suffered to go out it 
could only be rekindled with fire from the mother city. It 
is told that Peruvian families seeking a home northward 
along the Cordilleras used the fire test at a place where 
they halted on the banks of a river, to learn if the gods 
were favorable to the location. A brand was placed in 
a hole in the ground and if they found it extinct in the 
morning they construed it as an unfavorable omen and 
moved on, finally selecting a location where the test was 
successful. 7 

The usual manner of taking possession of lands by the 
Norse colonists was by lighting fires around them, or by 

"Pinkerton's "Voyages," iii. 611, 613. 
* " Native Races," v. 430. 



176 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

lighting fires at the mouths of the streams. By shooting 
a fiery arrow across a river they formally took possession 
of the land on the other side of it. In this way Ormund 
the Wise, who occupied the eastern side of a valley through 
which a small stream ran, took possession of the other side 
of the stream to keep it from falling into the hands of 
Eirek. s In order to limit the territory of the grasping 
chieftains it was established by a later rule that no man 
should have more than he and his followers could enclose 
and dedicate by fires lighted at sunrise and kept burning till 
sunset, the distance between the fires not to be greater than 
would enable a man placed at one to discern the smoke 
of the other by day and the flame by night. 

Giving away fire was abstained from in Rome, and is 
still regarded unfavorably in rural parts of England. 9 
It is a saying in Ireland that giving away fire on May Day 
gives away the luck for the year. It was considered 
a safeguard from evil, upon that day, and must not be 
carried away from the house. Neither must milk or salt 
be carried away. If the fire goes out on a May Day morn- 
ing, that, too, is very unlucky, and it must be rekindled by 
bringing a lighted sod from the priest's house. The 
ashes of the blessed turf were then sprinkled on the floor 
and threshold of the house. 10 At an annual festival of 
the Creek Indians, after a three days' fast, all the fires 
were put out in their houses, and on the fourth morning 
the priest rubbed together two dry sticks till they ignited, 
when the fire was distributed in all the dwellings. Not till 
after this ceremony was performed were the women at 
liberty to carry home the new corn from the harvest field. 
At a prescribed time of year in spring and autumn a special 

8 " Northern Antiquities," 287. 

9 " Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India," W. Crooke, 370. 

10 " Ancient Legends of Ireland," Lady Wilde, 103, 106. 



FIRES 177 

officer of the Chinese attended to the rite of taking fire out 
of doors and bringing it in again. A penalty was inflicted 
on the townspeople who lost fire or let it go out by inad- 
vertence when the villagers were gone afield. As to taking 
out and bringing in again the fire, Mr. Simcox suggests that 
it probably announced publicly the time when it was proper 
for the cultivators to leave their houses for their fields, 
and when they should return home again. 11 

Pliny accepted Empedocles and Hippocrates for author- 
ity in saying that beneficial results followed the lighting 
of fires to counteract the evil effects of eclipses; and all 
over India fires were lighted when cholera prevailed. 12 
In the Isle of Man fires were lighted formerly to the wind- 
ward side of the fields that the smoke might pass over the 
corn, and blazing furze or gorse was carried several times 
around the cattle, probably to drive away from them evil 
influences. Thistleton Dyer quotes from a writer in the 
Liverpool Mercury, in 1867, who says the old pagan 
worship of fire still survives nominally in honor of St. 
John; and in Kilkenny fires blaze on every hillside, and 
there are many in Queen's County, and in Kildare 
and Wexford. 13 The people danced around the fires, and 
children jumped through the flames. Formerly live coals 
were carried into the fields to prevent blight of the corn. 
Witches were aggressive on Hallow Eve, and in England 
bundles of straw on fire were carried by the master of the 
house around the corn to ward them off, and in Scotland 
the red end of a fiery stick was waved about in mystic 
figures to accomplish the same purpose. If a lighted 
candle was carried to the fells or hills from eleven till 

""Primitive Civilizations," ii. 48. 

""Natural History," xxxvi. 39; "Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern 
India," 90. 
13 " British Customs," 321. 



i 7 8 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

twelve at night, and it burned all the time steadily, the 
power of the witches was foiled for the season, but if the 
light went out it boded ill for the bearer. 14 

The Midsummer festival of St. John was observed all 
over Europe in the Middle Ages. Fires were kindled in 
the streets and market places. Sometimes they were 
blessed by the priests. Young men and maidens danced 
around them, leaped over them, and cast garlands and 
herbs into them. It was believed beneficial for men and 
cattle. Evil and sickness were expelled by them. Bon- 
fires were lighted with birch, for that was reputed a foil for 
wicked spirits. If one slept on this night the devil might 
take away his wandering soul. Does this account for the 
custom of sitting up all night on St. John's Eve? There 
is scarcely room left for doubt, says Dr. Brinton, that 
" bonfire " was originally " bone-fire," and originally 
bones were burned as symbolical of sacrifice. " To this 
day " says he, " in the remoter parishes of Munster and 
Connaught great fires are lighted on St. John's Eve 
(June 23d), in each of which a bone is burnt." 15 A cere- 
mony in Little Russia, on St. John's night, consisted in 
wrapping a stake in straw, driving it into the ground, and 
setting it on fire while peasants threw upon the flames the 
boughs of birches and sang: " May my flax be as tall as 
this bough." 16 Apparently the ceremony was magical. 
Fire symbolized the warmth and heat of the sun needed 
for the growth of the crop. The herdsmen make torches 
of birch bark on the day before the Midsummer fires in 
Servia, and, lighting them, march around the sheepfolds 
and cattle pens. The flocks are led over the fires while 
hymns of praise are being sung. The morning after- 

11 " British Customs," 395. 

15 Journal of American Folk-Lore, iii. 18. 

10 " Songs of the Russian People," 250. 



FIRES 179 

wards the cattle are sometimes driven over the embers as 
a specific against murrain and magic, and also against hail 
and lightning. 

The extensive observance of these rites may be inferred 
from the fact that efforts were made to suppress them at 
various times. The Town Council of Niirnberg, June 
20th, 1653, prohibiting the heathenish use, on St. John's 
Day, of fires and dancing and leaping over the flames and 
carrying brands to the fields. They were forbidden in Aus- 
tria in 1850. 17 Long before this, by the sixth Council of 
Constantinople, a.d. 680, by its 65th Canon, bonfires were 
prohibited in the following language: "These Bonefires 
that are kindled by certaine people on New Moones before 
their shops and houses, over which also they use ridicu- 
lously and foolishly to leape by certaine ancient customs, 
we command them from henceforth to cease. Whoever 
therefore shall doe any such thing; if it be a clergyman, let 
him be deposed; if a layman, let him be excommunicated." 
Under Pope Zachary, a.d. 742, were prohibited " those 
sacrilegious fires which they call Nedfir [or bonefires], 
and all other observances of the pagans whatsoever." 18 

The Manx drove their cattle through the fire on May 
Day and singed them a little. 19 In the Voigtland on May 
Day Eve children carried blazing brooms on the hilltops, 
which was supposed to have a favorable effect on the 
harvest and the vintage. At Shrovetide in Franconia they 
' drew a fiery plow, " kindled by a fire cunningly made there- 
on," till it fell to pieces. Servians at Christmas lighted a 
log of oak newly cut, and poured wine upon it. When 
Pennant made his tour of Scotland, in 1769, the ceremony 
of the Bealtine, Beltane, or Baal fires, on the 1st of May, 

17 Grimm, 619, note. 
"Brand, 172. 

" " Celtic Folk-Lore, Welsh and Manx," John Rhys, i. 309. 



180 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

though varying in different districts of the High- 
lands, was yet in strict observance, says Walter Scott, " and 
the cake, which was then baked with scrupulous attention 
to certain rites and forms, was divided into fragments, 
which were formally dedicated to birds or beasts of prey 
that they, or rather the being whose agents they were, 
might spare the flocks and herds." 20 The manner of bak- 
ing and distributing the cake in Perthshire has been 
described as follows : The boys in the township met on the 
moor, cut a table in the sod, and kindled a fire. They 
kneaded an oatmeal cake and baked it in the embers, after- 
wards dividing it into as many pieces as there were persons, 
blackening with charcoal one portion. All the pieces were 
put in a bonnet and drawn by lot. The one to whom the 
blackened piece fell was devoted to Baal as a sacrifice, to 
secure his favor in making the year productive, and accord- 
ingly he leaped three times through the flames. Grimm 
says that in the early mention of the Bealtine fires two 
fires were lighted side by side, and to pass unhurt between 
them was wholesome for men and beasts. 21 Effigies were 
frequently burned in these fires, or a pretense was made of 
putting a living person in them. In the Eifel Mountains 
in Rhenish Prussia a hut was built of straw and brushwood 
which had been collected from house to house, and a straw 
man placed in it and burned with it. If the smoke blew 
towards the cornfields it boded fortune to the harvest. 
In Swabia the image of a human being was fastened to a 
fir tree and burned the first Sunday in Lent, and the 
charred embers taken home and planted in the flax fields. 
The ceremony was termed burning the " witch." In some 
parts of Germany a bonfire was kindled on Easter Eve in 
an open space near the church, to which the people carried 

80 " Letters on Demonology," 78. 
""Teutonic Mythology," 613. 



FIRES 181 

sticks of oak, beech, and walnut, which they charred in 
the sacred fire and carried home and burned on the hearth 
to protect the homestead from fire, lightning, and hail, 
or they set them in the fields, gardens, and meadows 
when the plants thrived and were not beaten down by hail 
or injured by vermin. A wooden figure called Judas was 
sometimes burned in the bonfire, the ashes of which were 
mixed with the seed at the next sowing. Squirrels were 
burned in the Easter fires at Braumrode, in the Harz 
Mountains, and bones at Altmark. The general inter- 
pretation of these ceremonies adopted by Frazer and 
Mannhardt is that they originated in belief in magic, and 
were magical rites to secure a proper supply of sunshine 
for men, animals, and plants. Burning wheels were 
rolled, blazing discs thrown, and burning tar barrels 
swung, through sympathy or mimicry, to produce a similar 
effect. " Leaping over the fire and driving cattle through 
it may be intended to secure for man and beast a share of 
the vital energy of the sun," 22 as well as purification. 
Hottentots drove their sheep through the fires built at 
certain times, and similar ceremonies were observed by 
the Hindus of Southern India at the Feast of Ingathering, 
in the devotional service to Surya, the sun god, or Agni, 
the deity of fire. The burning of effigies in these fires, 
and making a pretense of burning living persons in them, 
make it seem probable that in former times human beings 
were actually sacrificed in this manner. Condemned crim- 
inals were reserved by the ancient Celts to be sacrificed at 
a festival which took place every five years. It was 
believed that the more victims there were the more fertile 
the land would be. When the supply of criminals fell 
short, captives taken in war were used. They were sacri- 
ficed by Druids or priests. Some were shot down with 

22 "The Golden Bough," iii. 312. 



1 82 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

arrows, some impaled, and some burned alive. Colossal 
images of wood or wickerwork were made and filled with 
live men and animals, and then the images and their living 
contents were burned. The wickerwork giants of the 
Druids survived in the later festivals of modern Europe, 
colossal giants made of osiers, moved through the streets 
by means of rollers and ropes controlled by men enclosed 
within the figures, forming part of the annual procession 
at Douay. Similar wicker giants were led about in the 
spring carnivals 'in the towns of Belgium and French 
Flanders. Artificial giants were used in England at the 
Midsummer festival, and these were sometimes burned in 
the bonfires. As men and animals were burned in the 
wicker giants of the Druids, so serpents were burned in hol- 
low columns filled with light materials at Luchen in the 
Pyrenees on Midsummer Eve, live cats were burned at 
Paris and Metz, a white cock in Russia, and elsewhere 
squirrels and horses' heads. 23 That human sacrifices and 
the sacrifice of cattle originally were a part of the rites 
connected with the Baal fires is apparently true. Later, 
as an acceptable equivalent, children and cattle marched 
between the fires or leaped over them. The cattle were 
sometimes singed with the flame of a lighted torch, or cut 
so as to spill blood, which as a substitute for the ani- 
mal, was offered as a sacrifice to Baal, the sun god. The 
hazel stick of which the torch was made that singed 
the yearling was preserved for use in driving the cattle 
to the watering places. 24 

An account is given by Grimm of an observance at a 
Midsummer festival in 1827 at Konz, a German village 
on the Moselle. Men and youths assembled towards 
evening on the top of the Stromberg, and every house 

23 " The Golden Bough," Hi. 320-324. 
""Ancient Legends of Ireland," 113. 



FIRES 183 

delivered a truss of straw with which a huge wheel was 
wrapped so that none of the wood was left visible. A 
strong pole was passed through the middle, sticking out 
some distance on each side for those to grasp who were 
to guide the wheel. At a signal the wheel was lighted 
and set in motion down the hill to the Moselle. An 
abundant vintage was thought assured if the burning 
wheel reached the river before it went out. In the same 
way butchers of Treves sent down a wheel yearly from the 
top of the Paulsberg. The use of wheels at Midsummer 
fires in France is attested by writers of the twelfth and thir- 
teenth centuries. From the fifteenth to the seventeenth 
centuries in great cities a pile of wood was reared in the 
public square before the town hall, decorated with flowers 
and foliage, and set on fire by the mayor. A bunch of 
white mullein and a leafy spray of walnut were sometimes 
whisked through the flame and afterwards nailed up over 
the cowhouse door. The youth leaped over the flames 
and danced and sang, and the old men put some of the 
coals in their wooden shoes as a safeguard against innu- 
merable woes. 25 

Grimm gives an incantation ceremony, described by Miss 
Austin, which took place in 1767 in the Isle of Mull off the 
west coast of Scotland, for the purpose of curing disease 
among the black cattle. They carried to the top of Car- 
moor a wheel and nine spindles of oak wood. Every fire 
in every house in sight of the hill was put out. The wheel 
was turned from east to west, in the direction of the move- 
ment of the sun, over the nine spindles long enough to 
produce fire by friction, which must be accomplished before 
noon to be successful. For several days the effort failed, 
and the failure was attributed to the obstinacy of one of 
the householders who refused to allow the fire in his house 

26 " Teutonic Mythology," 6go ; 621. 



1 84 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

to be extinguished. Finally one of his servants was bribed 
to put out the fire, and then the incantation was successful. 
New fire was produced, a heifer was sacrificed, part of it 
being burned while yet alive. New fires were kindled on 
their hearths from the magical flames, and all partook of 
the feast; but the master of ceremonies, being unfortunate 
afterwards and reduced to beggary, was accounted accursed 
by the people of the surrounding country. 26 

While scholars disagree as to the origin of the word 
Yule, some, notably Bede, have traced its derivation from 
a word meaning wheel. Brand expresses an opinion that 
the " Yule block " in its first use may have been only a 
counterpart of the Midsummer fires, made within doors 
because of the cold weather at the winter solstice. 27 In 
some parts of Schleswig a wheel was rolled into the village 
at Christmas time, and this was said to be " trundling Yule 
into town." When the burning Yule log was struck and 
the sparks flew upward, the Servian exclaimed: "As 
many sheep, as many goats, as many swine, as many oxen, 
as many god-sends and blessings, as here fly sparks." 2S 

The customs of the period at the feast of St. John are 
pictured in an interesting manner in the " Popish King- 
dom," a book written in Latin in the middle of the six- 
teenth century by a fierce German Protestant named Kirch- 
meyer under the literary name of Thomas Naogeorgus, 
and translated into English by the Puritan, Barnaby 
Googe, from which the following is an extract: 

" Then doth the joyfull feast of John the Baptist take his turne, 
When bonfiers great, with loftie flame, in every towne doe burne ; 
And young men round about with maides, doe daunce in every streete, 
With garlands wrought of Motherwort, or else with Vervaine sweete, 

ao " Teutonic Mythology," 608. 

27 " Antiquities," 249. 

28 Grimm, 702, 1236, note. 



FIRES 185 

And many other flowers faire, with Violets in their handes, 
Whereas they all do fondly thinke, that whosoever stands, 
And thorow the flowres beholds, the flame, his eyes shall feel no paine. 
When thus till night they daunced have, they through the fire amaine, 
With striving mindes, doe runne, and all their hearbes they cast therein, 
And then with wordes devout and prayers they solemnly begin, 
Desiring God that all their ills may there consumed bee ; 
Whereby they thinke through all that yeare from agues to be free. 
Some others get a rotten wheele, all worn and cast aside, 
Which covered round about with strawe and towe, they closely hide ; 
And caryed to some mountaine's top, being all with fire light, 
They hurle it downe with violence, when dark appears the night; 
Resembling much the sunne, that from the Heavens downe should fall, 
A strange and monstrous sight it seemes, and fearefull to them all; 
But they suppose their mischiefs all are likewise throwne to hell, 
And that from harmes and daungers now, in saftie here they dwell." 

The use of a wheel in the Midsummer and Beltane fires 
is supposed to have been on account of its similitude to the 
sun. Balls representing the sun and moon were sometimes 
suspended within the burning wheels. As if to increase the 
magical effect the burning wheels were bound with yellow 
St. Johnswort. Boys in Ireland wore yellow stripes on 
their pantaloons at the festival. Jackets were fastened 
with knots of yellow, and a sash of the same color was 
worn. Knots of white and yellow lilies were pinned on 
the breasts of the girls, and bundles of yellow gorse were 
heaped about the bonfires. These colors are at least of 
some significance in determining the primitive purpose of 
the rite. 

The Irish also made a circle of fire around children and 
cattle to guard them from evil influence. The flame has 
been interpreted as the visible symbol of the divine spirit 
that dwelt in the substance ignited, and no evil spirit 
could pass this emblem of divinity. 29 

The Irish custom of the fathers jumping through the 
fires with their children in their arms suggests an earlier 

20 " Ancient Legends of Ireland," 125. 



1 86 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

sacrifice of the children themselves, as was practiced by 
the ancient Phoenicians when the priest tossed the children 
into the arms of Moloch, whose statue was so arranged 
that the additional weight of the offering changed its bal- 
.ance and the victim rolled off into the fiery furnace 
below. Hebrews were forbidden to carry their children 
through the fire. 30 The prohibition was accompanied 
with that of divination, witchcraft, and enchantment, 
and the language indicates some degree of confidence in 
the magical effects of the practice. These were appeals 
to other supernatural powers and an abomination to 
Jahveh. When in the days of Hosea they fell into 
the hands of the Assyrians the children of Israel secretly 
leagued with the gods of the foreign powers and " caused 
their sons and daughters to pass through the fire." So 
Manasseh used enchantments. That the children of 
Judah sacrificed their sons in the fire in later times is evi- 
denced from the denunciations of the prophet Jeremiah. 
It is plain, says Robertson Smith, that the sacrifice of 
children to Moloch, before the captivity, was regarded by 
the worshipers as an oblation to Jehovah under the title 
of King. In the more ancient Hebrew rite, the same 
author says, the children sacrificed to Moloch were slaugh- 
tered before they were burned. At Hierapolis the 
sacrificed children were called oxen, and Baal or Moloch 
is identified with Saturn, who plays so conspicuous a part 
in the ceremonies of the ancient Italians as the god of the 
husbandman. 31 

The Arcadians, according to Pausanias, sacrificed to 
thunder and lightning on a legendary battlefield of 
the giants and the gods, where fire still came out of the 

30 Deut. xviii. 10. 

81 2 Kings xvii. 17; xxi. 6; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6; Jeremiah vii.. 31; xix. 5; 
"Religion of the Semites," 352, 388. 



FIRES 187 

ground, not far from a river called Bathos, near which 
was a spring that flowed only every other year. There 
were special chambers in a temple of the Lydians in which 
were ashes on the altars, " not like other ashes in appear- 
ance," into which chambers the magician entered, and, 
calling on the gods in a foreign tongue and chanting incan- 
tations, fire was kindled. 32 

Because fertilized and impregnated by the lightning of 
the thunder cloud, rainwater has been thought to be more 
nutritive and prolific than other water. The thunder- 
bolt thus becomes an agent of fecundation and nutrition 
as well as of destruction. Plutarch said agriculturists 
thought lightning the fertilizer of the waters, the impreg- 
nation of the waters by the thunder causing vital heat. 33 

It is undoubtedly true that to a large extent the cere- 
monies of the agricultural festivals of the ancient Greeks 
and Romans were connected with their belief in magic, 
and it is equally true of the kindred rites which con- 
tinued till a comparatively recent period among the nations 
of Europe. Fire and warmth could be produced by imi- 
tating them. The Romans let loose a burning fox at the 
feast of Ceres, whose first temple was built, according to 
tradition, 496 B. C. in obedience to the Sibylline oracle, on 
the occasion of a famine. The story of Ovid is an attempt 
to explain the origin of a custom the real significance of 
which was probably forgotten in his time. The story 
of the poet is that at Carseoli lived with her husband a 
frugal peasant woman on a bit of land worked by them- 
selves, when their sportive son, " in the dawn of life," 
caught in a sloping corner of the field at the end of a 
willow grove a she-fox, which was believed to have been 
guilty of many a theft from their poultry yard. Wrapped 

32 " Description of Greece," v. 27 ; viii. 29. 
83 " Symposiacs," iv. 2. 



i88- MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

in stubble and hay, which the son fired, the captive fox 
escaped from his hands, and set afire the fields which were 
then clothed with the harvest. Lawmakers of Carseoli 
then forbade that any captured she-fox should again be 
allowed to escape alive, but should be burned at the feast 
of Ceres, the corn-goddess, 34 to atone for the injury to 
the harvest. The relationship is obvious of the tale of 
the Fasti and that of the Hebrew Samson's three hundred 
foxes tied tail to tail with firebrands between, which 
destroyed the corn and vineyards of the Philistines. 35 The 
revenge of Samson upon the Philistines for denying him 
his wife is an interpretation that probably bears the same 
relation to the latter story as the Roman tradition does to 
the former. Mr. Steinthal suggests that the burning foxes 
were a symbolical reminder of the damage done to the 
fields by a mildew called " red fox," which was in this 
way magically exorcised. 30 Mr. Fowler thinks the fox's 
tail, suggesting an ear of corn, was supposed to possess 
some fertilizing power which might be imparted to the 
fields. 37 That in some form or other the custom grew out 
of belief in imitative magic and the supernatural power of 
fire, is hardly to be questioned. The ceremony was to 
stimulate an abundant harvest. The tails of the foxes 
suggested a pattern for the bearded wheat as they ran over 
the fields, and the burning brands tied to their tails sym- 
bolized the light and warmth desired and needed to perfect 
the crop. 

At the Fordicia and Parilia and other festivals among 
the Romans there were likewise characteristic symbolic 
rites. One cow for the Capital and one for each of the 
thirty curia were sacrificed at the feast of Tellus. Their 

34 "Fasti," iv. 687. 

™ Judges xv. 

'"' " Legend of Samson " in Goldziher's " Hebrew Mythology," 398. 

37 " Roman Festivals," 76. 



FIRES 189 

unborn calves were burned and the ashes saved for the en- 
suing festival of the herdsmen and shepherds, at which they 
leaped over the flames and drove their cattle through 
them, to atone for and cleanse the flocks and herds and 
secure them from harm. They struck fire out of a stone 
and caught it in straw. " Many a time in truth," says 
Ovid, " have I carried in my full hand the ashes of the 
calf, and the beanstalks, the holy purgatives. Often in 
truth have I leaped over the fires placed in three rows, and 
the dripping bough of laurel has flung the sprinkled 
waters." :!8 The goddess was appeased, and protected alike 
" the cattle and those who tend the cattle," and all harm 
was repelled from the stalls. 

88 "Fasti," iv. 



CHAPTER XI 

PROCESSIONS AND LITANIES 

" What means, I say, this devil's procession, 
With men of orthodox profession ? 
'Tis ethnic and idolatrous — 
From heathenism derived to us." 1 

In nearly all cases a feature of the ceremonies with fire 
described in the preceding chapter was the procession. 
Burning torches were often carried by the people in their 
marches that by this means the influence of the fire, or the 
sunshine which it represented, might be disseminated far 
and wide. 

Church records in the time of Edward TV. contain 
charges for garlands and for men to bear torches about 
the parish on Corpus Christi Day (June 14th). In the 
" Country Parson," published in 1652, it is said the 
country parson loves the procession and maintains it. One 
of the advantages enumerated as being derived therefrom 
is the blessing of God for the fruits of the field. Of Corpus 
Christi Day, Googe's Naogeorgus says: 

" The Husbandmen about their corne doe ride, 
With many Crosses, Banners, and Sir John their priest beside: 
Who in a bag about his necke doth beare the blessed Breade, 
And oftentyme he down alightes, and Gospel lowde doth reade. 
This surely keepes the corne from winde, and raine, and from the blast, 
Such fayth the Pope hath taught, and yet the Papistes hold it fast." 2 

Processions bearing statues, relics, and holy emblems 

1 Hudibras. 

2 Brand, 164. 

190 



PROCESSIONS AND LITANIES 191 

through the streets were devices for bringing to naught the 
powers of the air. Rain and storms, it was thought, 
could be dispersed by them, or drought could be counter- 
acted and rain produced. The relics of St. Taurin were 
potent against dry weather, and those of St. Piat infallible 
against wet. By formulas and reading litanies the evil 
spirits which caused the storms and disturbances in the air 
might be driven away and the evil effects of their maledic- 
tions counteracted. A formula ascribed to Gregory 
XIII. reads: " I, a priest of Christ ... do com- 
mand ye, most foul spirits who do stir up these clouds 
. . . that ye depart from them, and disperse yourselves 
into wild and untilled places, that ye may be no longer 
able to harm men, or animals, or fruits, or herbs, or what- 
soever is for human use." 3 According to medieval belief 
the wild and untilled places were the proper habitations of 
evil spirits and demons. Other ceremonies to accompany 
the use of the formula given, according to the rubric, were : 
A great fire must be kindled on an open place, over it the 
sign of the cross be made, and the 114th Psalm chanted 
while sulphur, asafetida, and other like substances were 
thrown into the flames. 

The custom of public perambulations on one of the three 
days preceding Ascension Day or Holy Thursday is traced 
to Mamertus, bishop of Vienne, in the middle of the fifth 
century, and it began to be observed in England about the 
seventh century. Mamertus is said to have introduced 
the practice on account of the frequency of earthquakes 
and the incursions of wild beasts. The people accompanied 
the bishop or some of the clergy into the fields, where 
they repeated litanies and implored God to avert from 
them plagues and pestilence, and to give them seasonable 
weather and the fruits of the earth in their season. Boys 

3 " Warfare of Science with Theology," ii. 340. 



192 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

with green boughs in their hands and others singing hymns 
sometimes formed part of the procession. After the 
Reformation the recitation of the Litany was discontinued, 
but the memorial of the processions long survived in the 
perambulations of Rogation week around the parishes, 
known as beating the bounds, when the boys were some- 
times whipped at the boundaries, to make them remember 
them, it is said, or as otherwise explained, the custom sur- 
vived as a memorial of earlier sacrificial rites at the 
terminal points. Googe has translated Naogeorgus' 
account of " Procession Week " as follows: 

" Now comes the day wherein they gad abrode, with crosse in hande, 
To boundes of every field, and round about their neighbor's lande: 
And as they go they sing and pray to every saint aboue, 
But to our Ladie specially, whom most of all they loue. 
When as they to the towne are come, the Church they enter in, 
And looke what saint that church doth guide, they humbly pray to him, 
That he preserve both corne and fruits from storme and tempest great 
And them defend from harme, and send them store of drinks and meat." 

In the annual processions in Rogation week certain trees 
along the boundary lines were known as gospel trees or 
holy trees because of the reading of the gospel under them 
by the clergymen in their annual perambulations. Herrick 
refers to the custom in these lines : 

" Dearest, bury me 
Under that Holy-Oke, or gospel-tree, 
Where (though thou seest not) thou may'st think upon 
Me, when thou yerely go-st procession." 

A ceremony is reported as taking place in Cheshire of 
reading the gospel to the springs on Ascension Day, when 
they were visited in the perambulations. It was believed 
that the water was better after it. The Scriptures were 
also read at wells in Derbyshire on Ascension Day and 
prayers offered. 4 

"'British Popular Customs," T. F. T. Dyer, an. 



PROCESSIONS AND LITANIES 193 

In the quaint verse of George Wither it is said, 

" That ev'ry man might keep his owne possessions, 
Our fathers us'd, in reverent processions 
(With zealous prayers, and with praisefull cheere) 
To walk their parish limits once each yeare." 

An old English sermon complains of the abuse of " these 
uplandysh processions and gangynges about, which be spent 
ryotyng and in belychere," and further says, " in these 
Rogation Days, it is to be asked of God, and prayed for, 
that God of his goodness wyll defende and save the corne 
in the felde, and that he wyll vouch save to pourge the 
ayer. For this cause be certaine Gospels read in the felde 
amonges the corne and grasse, that by the vertue and 
operation of God's word, the power of the wicked spirites, 
which kepe in the aire and infecte the same (whence come 
pestilences and the other Kyndes of diseases and syk- 
nesses), may be layde down and the ayer made pure and 
cleane, to the intent the corne may remain unharmed, and 
not infected of the sayd hurteful spirites." 5 That the 
air was the abode of wicked spirits was an old and per- 
sistent belief. To their influence was attributed the blight 
and the frosts, but they fled away at the sound of the lit- 
anies and approach of the hallowed processions. 

In the accounts of the Churchwardens of St. Margaret's, 
Westminster, in 1559, is this charge: "Item for bread, 
ale, and beer, on Tewisday in the Rogacion Week, 3s. 4d.," 
and for bread and drink the next day " for Mr. Arch- 
deacon and the Quire of the Minster, 3s. 4d." The 
year 1597 is represented as a time of great scarcity and 
dearness, and for the perambulation of Kensington that 
season 6 pounds 8 shillings and 8 pence is charged up. 6 

At the festival called by the inhabitants of the Isle of 

5 Brand, in. 
"Ibid. 113. 



194 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

Man, sauin, the island was perambulated by young men on 
Hallow Eve, and rhymes in Manx were stuck up at the 
door of every dwelling, and fires kindled. This counter- 
acted the baneful influence of fairies and witches. In 
17 1 6 in the Isle of Lewis the poorer people still retained 
the custom of blessing their cornfields, and at the same time 
they went around them thrice sun-ways. 7 Old English 
records tell of blessing the corn upon St. Mark's Day, 
April 25th, the day of the old Roman Robigalia, on which 
occasion in divers parishes processions of citizens with 
banners marched and sang in Latin. Survivals of the 
old ceremonies still remain. The New York Times of 
October 7th, 1901, copies from the London Telegraph 
a description of the observance of the ancient custom of 
beating the bounds at Maidenhead on the day before, 
when the Mayor and corporation perambulated the entire 
boundaries of the borough, the proceedings occupying the 
entire day. Many amusing incidents occurred. Ladies 
encountered on the route were permitted to choose between 
being kissed on the boundary stone or bumped against a 
tree or a wall. 

On one of the last days of May the Romans had a 
festival known as the Ambarvalia, the ceremonies of which 
were presided over by the Arval priests, or priests of the 
fields. The word itself signifies to go round the field, 
and the Latin rite suggests the English perambulations 
of Rogation Week, of which it is perhaps the parent. 
According to Pliny the Arval priests were first established 
by Romulus and consisted of himself and the sons of 
his foster mother. The chaplet bestowed upon them by 
Romulus consisted of a wreath of ears of corn tied with a 
white fillet. 8 The object of the procession was to purify 

'"Western Isles of Scotland," in Pinkerton's "Voyages," iii. 613. 
B " Natural History," xviii. 2. 



PROCESSIONS AND LITANIES 195 

the crops. The victims to be sacrificed were led three 
times round the fields while the procession carried olive 
branches and chanted songs. Accompanying the offerings 
were prayers to Mars invoking protection from unseason- 
able influences, a prosperous issue of the season, and safety 
to the shepherds and flocks. 9 It is perhaps to this festi- 
val that Virgil alludes when admonishing all to remember 
to pay their annual offerings to Ceres, sacrificing amidst 
the joyous blades of corn. " Thrice let the auspicious 
victim be led round the young corn ; then should follow the 
whole choir of rejoicing companions." 10 Ovid says white 
garments were worn at the feast of Ceres, the goddess of 
corn, as most befitting, and the wearing of dark woolen 
robes was not allowed. At the Games of Ceres, of which 
the poet says both the office and merits of the goddess are 
plain to be perceived and there is no need of any explana- 
tion of their origin, 11 on the first day there was a procession 
from the Capitol to the Circus Maximus with the officers 
of state at the head, and the men of age for military serv- 
ice following on foot and horseback. Chariots followed, 
and musicians and dancers, and the procession closed with 
images of the gods carried on the shoulders of men, or in 
chariots. 

The honors paid to the goddess Demeter at Hermione 
are described by Pausanias. An annual festival was held 
in the summer. The priests of the gods and all the town 
authorities led the procession, and men and women fol- 
lowed. The boys, too, clothed in white, formed in pro- 
cession with garlands on their heads. A full-grown heifer, 
tightly bound, was dragged in the rear of the procession 
to the temple, where old women in waiting cut its throat 

8 " Roman Festivals," 126. 
19 Georgics, i. 340. 
11 " Fasti," iv. 393. 



196 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

with a sickle. Other heifers followed and were slain in 
the same way. Pausanias said that no man in Hermione 
knew the special object of the ceremony, 12 which would 
indicate that in his time the significance of the primitive 
custom of which this was a survival, no longer had any 
hold upon them, although the ancient rites, from force of 
tradition, continued to be performed. From the season of 
the year when the festival took place, from the implement 
used in slaying the sacrifices, and from the character of the 
goddess, it seems clear that it was a fertilizing ceremony 
and believed to influence the growth of vegetation. 

The possible origin of horse racing among the Greeks 
and Romans in agricultural rites to promote fertility of 
the land is suggested by Mr. Fowler. 13 Horse racing 
and chariot racing formed a part of numerous agricultural 
festivities, as in modern times racing survives in the attrac- 
tions of our annual festivals of husbandmen. Early 
Roman writers record that one of the pair of victors in 
the chariot race on the Campus Martius was sacrificed to 
Mars, originally protector of herds and crops and the deity 
of the cultivator, though in later times more celebrated as 
the god of war. 

Most interesting in the study of these rites is the festi- 
val of St. Bernard at Monte San Bernardo, observed 
annually on the 15th of June. Monte Rubello, the 
former name of the now sacred mountain, had been one of 
the noted fastnesses on the mountain top where Fra Dol- 
cino, the heretical reformer, prophet, and leader, had long 
withstood the forces of the church in the early years of the 
fourteenth century, till he was finally captured and tor- 
tured to death. From his association with it this moun- 
tain fastness became known as an accursed spot, whither 

12 " Description of Greece," ii. 35. 
lu " Roman Festivals," 246. 



PROCESSIONS AND LITANIES 197 

priests were accustomed to send demons which they exor- 
cised, on account of hailstorms. The result of such an 
aggregation of evil spirits caused fearful tempests in the 
neighboring lands, destroying the crops and rendering the 
fields valueless till the people were reduced to beggary. 
Dante gives prominence to the story of Fra Dolcino by 
making Mohammed, as a kindred spirit, send a message of 
warning to him from the depths of the Inferno. 14 Finally 
as a cure for the terrible disasters that befell them the pov- 
erty-stricken people vowed a chapel on the mountain top, to 
St. Bernard, if they could be relieved, which having been 
built, Monte Rubello was changed to Monte San Bernardo, 
and in memory of their deliverance, it is said, the yearly 
festivals were instituted, in which one man from every 
hearth in the surrounding parishes marched with their 
priests in solemn procession, bearing crosses and banners. 
Pardons were granted by the Pope, and bread was distrib- 
uted, which was provided by special levy from the parishes. 
This anniversary was suspended after the French invasion 
under Napoleon, but again resumed in 18 15. It was 
again suspended on account of the disorders attending it, 
and again resumed in 1839, on which occasion a hurricane 
that accompanied it was attributed to the evil influence of 
its former occupant, the heretic, Fra Dolcino, a procession 
of whose men, says the historian Lea, 15 even to the present 
day, is seen on the mountain crest during the night before 
the annual celebration. 

Ceremonies for bringing in the spring and carrying out 
the winter, so common in all parts of the earth some time 
or other, are still enacted in some of the European coun- 
tries. One that took place at Pylos, Greece, in 1895, is 
reported by an eye witness, Mr. Tilton. A masked 

11 Canto xxviii. 

10 " History of the Inquisition," iii. 120. 



198 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

effigy was borne on a bier at the head of which was a 
mock priest with torchbearers in advance. Music of pipe 
and drum accompanied the slow-marching procession, 
which finally brought up in the public square where the 
image was burned. The ceremony is sometimes known as 
the carrying out of Death. Images are made of straw or 
of birchen twigs. They are sometimes flung into the water 
from a high rock, though oftener consumed by fire. Again 
the effigy is carried by the procession into the field and set 
on a pole around which they dance. Finally they tear 
the image into pieces, committing the fragments to the 
flames while they sing lines like these : 

" We carry death out of the village, 
And the New Year into the village. 
Dear Spring, we bid you welcome, 
Green grass, we bid you welcome. 

Welcome dear Summer, 
Green little corn. 

Give us a good year 

For wheat and for rye." l6 

A struggle sometimes takes place for the burning frag- 
ments of the effigy and those who secure them carry them 
home and tie them to the trees in their gardens or bury 
them in their fields to make the crops grow better, or a 
wisp of the straw from an effgy is placed in the manger to 
make the cattle thrive. The extinct spark of vegetation 
of the old year is personified in the image destroyed. 
The Romans had annually a ceremony of expelling Mars, 
who was, as already mentioned, primarily a god of vege- 
tation. 17 Westphalians have an annual ceremony of 
expelling evil by driving out the butterfly on St. Peter's 

10 " The Golden Bough," ii. 84. 
17 " Roman Festivals," 48. 



PROCESSIONS AND LITANIES 199 

Day, when the children go from house to house knocking 
on the doors and singing rhymes bidding the butterfly 
depart. Omission of the ceremony exposes the cattle to 
sickness and other misfortunes. 18 

Ezekiel describes the weeping and wailing 19 of the 
women for Tammuz at the door of the gate of the temple. 
The annual rite was to renew and quicken vegetable life. 
The ceremonial death of the young god was followed by his 
resurrection and the imitative magic promoted the reality 
desired. Under various forms the Babylonian ceremony 
was adopted among other Aryans who came in contact 
with Semitic ideas. The Babylonians celebrated it just 
before the summer solstice. The mourning was followed 
by the reappearance of the god. Adonis was the Syrian 
Tammuz. At Byblus his death was annually mourned 
with weeping and wailing and beating the breast. Next 
day he was believed to come to life again, and the red 
anemone sprang from his blood. In the fifth century 
before the Christian Era the rite was adopted by the 
Greeks. The songs of their poets commemorated it and 
were sung at their festivals. Beside the image of the dead 
god were placed " all ripe fruits that the tall trees' branches 
bear, and the delicate gardens, arrayed in baskets of sil- 
ver " with golden vessels of incense and dainty cakes 
fashioned by the women " mingling blossoms manifold 
with the white wheaten flour, all that is wrought of honey 
sweet, and in soft olive oil, all cakes fashioned in the sem- 
blance of things that fly and of things that creep." In 
the morning the maidens came and carried him forth 
among the waves that broke upon the beach, and with 
locks unloosed, and ungirt raiment falling to their ankles, 
and bosoms bare, they began their shrill, sweet song: 

18 " The Golden Bough," iii. 92, note. 
19 Ezekiel viii. 3. 



200 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

" Woe, woe for Adonis, he hath perished, the beauteous 
Adonis, dead is the beautiful Adonis." Cyprus sheds a 
tear for each blood-drop of Adonis, and tears and blood 
are turned to flowers on the earth. The blood brings 
forth the rose, the tears the windflower. 20 

By invocations, litanies, and songs, evil things could be 
put away. The origin of music has been ascribed to the 
loud noises made to drive 21 away evil spirits. It was a 
tradition of the Swedes and Norwegians that lame horses 
had been healed by snatches of song. Such remedial agen- 
cies were not unknown to the ancient Romans. It was an 
ancient Irish belief that a beast could be rhymed to death. 
Reginald Scot mentions it in the " Discovery of Witch- 
craft." Rats and other vermin could be driven away by 
persistent use of metrical charms and incantations. Rosa- 
lind says: "I was never so berhymed since Pythagoras' 
time, that I was an Irish rat," and Shylock: 

" What if my house be troubled with a rat, 
And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats 
To have it baned? " M 

Browning's poem has made immortal the legend of Bruns- 
wick of the old man of Hamelin, who contracted to rid the 
town of its rats by a secret charm by which he could draw 

" All creatures living beneath the sun, 
That creep or swim or fly or run." 

Similar legends of the piper are told in other countries, 
which are a sufficient proof of a widely extended belief in 
the power of such charms over the rodents at some period 
of the past. A legend of Lorch is that when the Bishop 
of Worms had instituted a procession and litanies to rid the 

20 Theocritus, Idyl xv. ; Bion, Idyl I. 

21 " Worship of the Romans," Frank Granger, 282. 

22 " As You Like It," iii. 2; "Merchant of Venice," iv. 1. 



PROCESSIONS AND LITANIES 201 

fields of ants, and failed, he was met by a hermit, who con- 
tracted to secure the deliverance of the people from the 
pests on their promising to erect a chapel to cost a hundred 
guilders on the site of their depredations. Obtaining their 
assent to his proposition, he played on his pipe and the 
insects followed him into the lake, but failing to get the 
promised funds for his chapel, he again sounded his pipe 
and the pigs this time followed into the lake and vanished. 

From the " Geoponica," a Grecian treatise on agricul- 
ture, it is learned that the Greeks had a custom of writing 
a message on a piece of paper and sticking it up in their 
fields, to drive away, the vermin which infested them. 
They were formally exorcised in Spain, and in Belguim 
conjurations against them were usually in the name of St. 
Gertrude, first Abbess of Nivelle. 23 Peasants in the de- 
partment of Loiret used to run about the fields on the first 
Sunday in Lent with burning torches, adjuring the field 
mice to quit the wheat, and in the peninsula of La Manche 
peasants ran about with lighted torches through the night 
of the first Sunday in Lent, to drive away the moles and 
mice. Water from the well in the crypt of the church of St. 
Gertrude at Nivelle was sprinkled on the fields by peasants 
to drive out the vermin. The following formula written 
on paper which was afterwards buttered was used to expel 
them : " Rats et rates, vous qui avez mange le cceur 
de Sainte Gertrude, je vous conjure, en son nom, de 
vous en aller dans la plaine de Rocroi." 

The Spring procession, or procession of jumpers, takes 
place annually at Echternach, in Luxemburg, on the first 
Tuesday after Whitsunday. It is regarded as a cure for 
epilepsy and murrain and other diseases of man and beast. 
An account of the ceremony was written by a priest and 
teacher in the public school by the name of J. B. Krier, 

23 " Magic of the Horse-shoe," 288 ; " Credulities Past and Present," 309. 



202 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

who firmly believed in its efficacy. His book was published 
in 1 87 1. According to one of the legendary accounts of 
the origin of the ceremony, in the eighth century all the 
horses, cows, sheep, and goats were affected with an epi- 
demic of dancing in their stalls and refused to eat. 
Medicine failed to overcome it and the people vowed to 
dance around the grave of St. Willibrord. When the vow 
was fulfilled the plague ceased. This dance around the 
saint's tomb is still a prominent feature of the ceremony. 
Another tradition connects it with the black death which 
prevailed about the middle of the fourteenth century. " In 
all probability," says Professor Evans, " it is a survival of 
the old pagan feast which was celebrated at the summer 
solstice in honor of the sun, and changed by Willibrord 
into a Christian festival." 24 Statistics derived from offi- 
cial sources are given relating to the observance of this 
festival on May 15th, 1894, when 16,905 persons par- 
ticipated, including 140 clergymen and one bishop, 2,448 
singers, 11,836 springers, and there were 2,213 prayers. 

Mr. Frazer calls attention to a custom of certain peoples 
of propounding enigmas to each other on special occasions, 
as at marriage, or burial, or during the presence of a corpse 
in the house. Among the Alfoors of Central Celebes 
riddles were proposed during the season for cultivating the 
fields and while the crops were growing, but at other times 
they were forbidden. When someone had guessed the 
answer to the riddle the rest cried aloud, " Make our rice 
grow." 25 

The Khonds of Orissa besought Boora Pennu and Tari 
Pennu, and all other gods, that the sown seed might appear 
to the eating birds as earth, and as stones to the eating 
animals. The Finns invoked Tahvanus, lord of the horses, 

24 Article in Popular Science Monthly, vol. xlviii. 84. 
20 " The Golden Bough," iii. 69, note. 



PROCESSIONS AND' LITANIES 203 

to guard their herds, to give them feed, to watch them 
when no roof sheltered them, and to defend them " in the 
bushy woods when on beds of pine-tree sprays, on pillows 
made of twigs, that not a hair be broken off." 26 

Lullabies were sung by the milkmaids of Uist to soothe 
their cows and they frequently changed the song to suit the 
action of the milking. The cows were said to become so 
accustomed to the milking songs or lilts that they would not 
give their milk without them. Owners of stock preferred 
maids with voices pleasing to the cows. Sometimes when 
the calf of a cow died and the cow was restive and would 
not yield her milk, the skin of the dead calf was placed on 
a skeleton frame before the cow 27 with the desired effect 
of soothing her, but the cows refused to be comforted, it 
is said, if the skin of another calf, though of the same 
color, had been used. The sham calf was made of wicker 
work if the material was obtainable, and a boy near by 
moved it now and then to make the cow believe that it was 
all right. While the maid was busy taking the milk she 
sang: 

"Oh, my heifer! Oh, my gentle heifer! 
My heifer so full of heart, generous and kind, 
In the name of the High King, take to thy calf. 

Thou black cow, mine own gentle black cow ! 
The same disease afflicts thee and me ! 
Thou art grieving for thy beautiful first calf! 
And I for mine own beloved son under the sea." 

An invocation formerly sung by old men and women while 
tending their herds in the Hebrides is quoted by Lord Arch- 
ibald Campbell in " The Records of Argyll " from " Graz- 
ing and Agrestic Customs of the Outer Hebrides," by 
A'Carmichael, as follows: 

20 " Pre- and Proto-Historic Finns," John Abercromby, ii. 201. 
27 Pinkerton's " Voyages," iii. 624. 



2o 4 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

" I place this flock before me, 
As 'twas ordered by the King of the world, 
Mary Virgin to keep them, to wait them, to watch them, 
On ben, on glen, on plain, 
On ben, on glen, on plain. 

" Arise thee, Bridget, the gentle, the fair, 
Take in thine hand thy comb, and thy hair; 
Since thou to them madest the charm, 
To keep them from straying, to save them from harm. 

" From rocks, from snow-wreaths, from streams, 
From crooked ways, from destructive fits, 
From the arrows of the fairy women, 
From the hurt of envy, from the eye of evil, 
From the hurt of envy, from the eye of evil. 

" Mary, mother, tend thou the offspring all ! 
Bridget of the white palms ! shield thou my flocks ! 
Columba, beloved ! thou saint of best virtues, 
Encompass the breeding cattle, bestow thy protection on the herd I " 



CHAPTER XII 

MAKING THE HERDS PROLIFIC 

" There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land." * 

" Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, 
To touch Calpurnia ; for our elders say, 
The barren, touched in this holy chase, 
Shake off their sterile curse." a 

In an age when the people were actively alert for super- 
natural manifestations any deviation from the ordinary 
course of events was readily attributed to the favor or 
malevolence of some superior power. Did the cattle fail 
to bring forth their offspring it was because of the hostility 
of some offended deity. Some neglect on the part of the 
people of offerings and sacrifices, or failure to comply 
with traditional customs, was a satisfactory way of account- 
ing for any penalties that might be inflicted upon them- 
selves or their beasts. It has been related by an ancient 
historian of Greece, as one of the wonders of Ellis, that 
while over their borders mares bore foals to he-asses, on 
account of some curse that rested upon them, it was never 
so in Ellis. 3 If barrenness were not a punishment for 
some transgression, it was likely to be looked upon 
as evidence of domination by some evil spirit, the lat- 
ter conception being most likely earliest in the develop- 
ment of primitive thought. How to drive out this hostile 

1 Exodus xxiii. 26. 
'"Julius Caesar," ii. 1. 
8 Pausanias, v. 5. 

205 



206 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

influence, or, in the former case, to sufficiently propitiate 
the powers that were chastizing them, was the problem 
which confronted them. However ludicrous, in the light 
of present knowledge, may seem some of the earlier con- 
ceptions of the human mind, it is interesting to trace the 
evidences of serious thought and study given to perplexing 
problems for which they were as yet unable to find any 
better solution. 

That Shakespeare's lines on the feast of the Lupercal 
find their inspiration in Plutarch's account of it in the 
biographies of " Romulus " and " Julius Caesar," is most 
likely. It was one of the oldest and most interesting fes- 
tivals of the Romans, and was celebrated only one month 
before the death of Caesar. How long continued the 
observance of it had been at that time is unknown, but so 
strong was its hold upon the people that it survived more 
than five centuries afterwards, when Pope Gelasius I., one 
hundred and seventy years after the Roman people had 
been constrained to accept Christianity as their state reli- 
gion, put an end to the old order of festivities by changing 
the day of the Lupercal (February 1 5th) to that of the Pur- 
ification of the Virgin Mary. 4 Ovid's story 5 of the origin 
of the Lupercal is that, when, because of long-continued 
barrenness of the Roman women, the oracle of Juno was 
consulted, the response was, " let the rough goat approach 
the Trojan matrons," and the ceremonies of the festival 
were instituted in an attempt to carry out their conceptions 
of the meaning of the communication from the goddess. 
The place for the meeting of the celebrants of the rite was 
at the spot where tradition said the twin children had been 
deposited by the Tiber, at the cave Lupercal, a name for 
the origin of which there is no satisfactory agreement 

4 " Roman Festivals," Warde Fowler, 321. 
6 " Fasti," ii. 427. 



MAKING THE HERDS PROLIFIC 207 

among authorities. There was an offering of sacred cakes 
made by the Vestals from the first ears of the last harvest 
and goats and dogs were sacrificed. Selected youths of 
high rank smeared their foreheads with knives bloody 
from the slaughter of the victims, who were then wiped 
with wool dipped in milk, and made to laugh as they girded 
themselves with the skins of the slaughtered goats, and, 
with strips of skin cut from the covering of the victims, as 
they ran around the base of the Palatine Hill they struck 
all the women with whom they came in contact, or 
who offered themselves or their hands. That the striking 
with thongs was to produce fertility, is explicitly affirmed 
by Roman authors. 6 That the thongs, being a part of the 
sacrificial victim, were conceived as possessing purifying 
and even magical power, is probable, and by the blows 
inflicted the powers of nature were quickened and the hos- 
tile or hindering spirits causing sterility were put to flight. 
Grimm relates a custom of the Teutons of beating their 
cattle with staves on their way home from the ceremonies 
for the expulsion of Death, to make them more fruitful. 7 
Branches and rods of certain trees were credited with magi- 
cal influence over women and herds in productiveness and 
in facilitating birth. Leto clasped a palm tree and an olive 
tree or two laurel trees when about to give birth to Apollo 
and Artemis. Wonderful virtues were ascribed to the 
sacred cedar of Gilgit. Branches of it were taken to the 
village and placed on a stone beside running water, where 
the blood of a sacrificed goat was poured over it, and each 
man carried to his home a sprig of the cedar. The next 
day the wife drove the goats to the Chili stone and pelted 
them with pebbles. From the omens she divined the sex 
of the kids expected during the ensuing year. The ferti- 

6 " Roman Festivals," 320, note 7. 
7 " Teutonic Mythology," 768. 



208 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

lizing influence of the cedar was imparted to the goats in 
driving them to the stone. " In Europe the May tree or 
Maypole," says Professor Frazer, " is supposed to possess 
similar powers over both women and cattle." 8 

Flora was one of the deities of the earth, or vegetation, 
or generation. 9 The Floralia of the Romans, held in 
honor of this goddess, probably originated in the Orient. 
The May festivals introduced into Britain are believed to 
be its survivals. In later times they degenerated into 
merrymaking festivities, but they had " everything orig- 
inally," writes Professor Frazer, quoting from Mann- 
hardt, " a serious and, so to speak, sacramental signifi- 
cance; people really believed that the god of growth was 
present unseen in the bough; by the procession he was 
brought to each house to bestow his blessing." 10 Herrick 
speaks of them as " the harmless folly of the time " : 

"See how 
Devotion gives each house a bough 
Or branch ; each porch, each door, ere this, 
An ark, a tabernacle is, 
Made up of white thorn neatly interwove." 

One of the legends of Flora is that she was a courtesan 
who left her wealth to the Roman people on condition that 
her birthday should be celebrated with an annual festival, 
which was held on the 28th of April, and afterwards 
extended to May 3d. Tacitus refers to the consecra- 
tion of her temple near the Circus Maximus in the reign of 
Tiberius. 11 In the same year (238 B.C.) games were insti- 
tuted in her honor. According to Ovid they were sup- 
ported by fines levied upon those who illegally pastured the 
public lands. The festival was a time of great license. 

R " The Golden Bough," i. 193. 
" Roman Festivals," 67. 

10 " The Golden Bough," i. 212. 

11 " Annals," ii. 49. 



MAKING THE HERDS PROLIFIC 209 

It was known as the feast day of the prostitutes in Rome. 
Hares and goats, animals known to be prolific, were let 
loose in the Circus Maximus, and beans and lupines and 
obscene medals were scattered among the people as symbols 
of fertility. According to the story of the poet, Flora, in 
her interview with Juno, calls her attention to a plant in 
her garden " sent to her from Olenian field," with which a 
sterile cow, touched, becomes a dam, and Juno, touched 
with the plant, conceived Mars. 12 

From time immemorial the 1st of May was a gala day 
in Britain. It was customary for all, both high and low, 
to go out on May morning at an early hour and gather 
flowers and branches of the hawthorn, with which they 
decorated their doors and windows. The fairest girl of 
the village was crowned with flowers as the " Queen of 
the May " and placed in a bower or arbor where she 
received the congratulations and homage of the revelers. 
In the reign of Henry VIII. the heads of the corporation 
of London went into the high grounds of Kent to gather 
the May, Queen Catherine and the King coming from their 
palace of Greenwich and meeting them on Shooter's Hill. 
A marked feature of these ceremonies was the erection in 
every village and town of a lofty Maypole, on which they 
suspended wreaths of flowers, and around which the people 
danced in rings, throughout the day. The Maypole of 
Lostock in Lancashire, said to be the oldest on record in 
England, is mentioned in a charter in which the town of 
West Halton was granted to the Abbey of Cockersand, 
about the time of King John's reign. It was used as a 
landmark and was therefore permanent instead of being 
erected annually as more commonly. 13 They continued in 
use till the middle of the eighteenth century. Washington 

12 "Fasti," v. 257, 282; "Roman Festivals," 93, 94. 
13 " British Popular Customs," 245. 



210 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

Irving describes the delight he experienced in seeing one 
on the banks of the Dee. They were also common in 
France and Germany. In 1644 the Puritan Parliament 
ordered all the Maypoles down in England and Wales, 
but they were again revived on the restoration of Charles 
II. in 1661. 

Stubbs, in Queen Elizabeth's time, writes of the " Maie 
Poole," which they bring from the woods with great ven- 
eration: "They have twentie or fourtie yoke of oxen, 
every oxe havyng a sweet nocegaie of flowers tyed on the 
tippe of his homes, and these oxen drawe home this Maie 
poole (this stinckyng I doll rather), which is covered all 
over with flowers and hearbes, bounde rounde aboute with 
stringes, from the top to the bottome, and sometyme 
painted with variable colours, with two or three hundred 
men, women and children followyng it, with great devo- 
tion. And thus being reared up, with handkercheifes 
and flagges streamyng on the toppe, they strawe the 
grounde aboute, binde greene boughes about it, sett up 
Sommer haules, Bowers, and Arbours hard by it. And 
then fall they to banquet and feast, to leape and daunce 
aboute it, as the Heathen people did at the dedication of 
their Idolles, whereof this is a perfect patterne, or rather 
the thyng itself." u 

Sometimes brushwood and other combustibles were 
placed around the tree and the whole set on fire, and when 
consumed, garlands were thrown across the embers, and 
couples with joined hands leaped over them. The singed 
garlands were carried home and preserved. They were 
thrown on the hearth when a thunder storm burst, and 
when the cattle were sick and during parturition they 
were given the garlands to eat. 

Thomas Morton, who came to Plymouth in 1622, has 

"Brand, 129. 



MAKING THE HERDS PROLIFIC 211 

himself described the introduction of the Maypole into 
the New World, and the ceremonies on the occasion of the 
erection of one at Ma-re Mount by himself and compan- 
ions, " with the help of salvages." A goodly pine tree 
eighty feet long " was reared up, with a pair of buck-horns 
nailed on, somewhat near unto the top of it, where it stood 
as a fair sea mark for directions ; how to find out the way to 
mine host of Ma-re Mount." Of the scandal connected 
with the revelries, Morton himself has written. He was 
arrested by Captain Standish on the order of the Gover- 
nor of Plymouth. Escaping from the guards, he subse- 
quently surrendered, and was sent back to England. He 
returned the next year to Plymouth to find that Governor 
Endicott had ordered down his Maypole. Governor 
Winthrop sent him again to Engiand, where he found his 
revenge in v/riting his " New England Canaan." 

Dr. Stukely wrote in 1724 of a Maypole Hill near 
Horncastle where the boys annually went in procession 
on May Day carrying white willow wands with the bark 
peeled off, a ceremony which strongly suggests that, at 
some former period, the peeled rods had some special sig- 
nificance. There is at least a possibility that their service 
may have been sometime akin to that of the goat-skin 
thongs in the hands of the runners at the feast of the 
Lupercal. 

Tradition has given special fructifying powers to the 
willow, hazel, and mistletoe. In one of the rites of the 
Mandans, in the spring of the year, the floor was strewn, 
and the medicine lodge decorated with willow boughs. 15 
It is said of the hazel: 

" If shepherds tell us true, thy wand hath power, 
With gracious influence, to avert the harm 
Cf ominous planets." 16 
15 Catlin, i. 158. 
10 "Talks Afield," L. H. Bailey, quoting from the "Token." 



212 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

On spits of hazel wood, for toasting forks, the choice 
entrails of the sacrificial goat were placed at the feasts of 
Bacchus. 17 

A feature of the midsummer festivals of the an- 
cient Druids was the gathering of the sacred mistletoe. 
Under the sacred oak they prepared for a feast and a sac- 
rifice. Two white bulls whose horns had never been 
bound before were taken to the spot where the mistletoe 
was to be gathered. A priest clad in a white robe climbed 
the tree and cut with a golden sickle the precious bough, 
and it was caught in a white cloth. The victims were 
sacrificed with prayers to God that he would make the 
gift prosperous to them. They believed a potion made 
from the bough given to barren animals removed their 
sterility. 18 A Worcestershire farmer was accustomed to 
give his bough of mistletoe to the cow that had a calf first 
after New Years, to bring good luck to the dairy. Many 
old writers speak of its remedial properties, and it was one 
of the ingredients with which the goddess Kod prepared in 
her caldron the water of inspiration, science, and im- 
mortality. 19 It was sacred to Friga, the Scandinavian 
Venus. 

The use of white bulls in the ceremony of gathering the 
sacred mistletoe by the Druids recalls the ancient laws 
compelling the tenants of the church lands attached to the 
church of the shrine of Bury St. Edmunds, to breed and 
provide as many white bulls as might be required for the 
ceremony which took place when barren women visited the 
shrine to be relieved of their sterility. The women 
walked to the shrine with a hand on the white bull. 20 

17 Virgil's " Georgics," ii. 396. 

18 Journal of American Folk-Lore, x. 35. 

10 " Scatalogic Rites," Capt. J. G. Bourke, 108. 
20 Journal of American Folk-Lore, x. 355. 



MAKING THE HERDS PROLIFIC 213 

Spencer emphasizes the sacredness of the oak in the 
turning of the ax's edge, which was " halfe unwilling " 
to wrong the " holy eld," 

" For it had bene an auncient tree, 
Sacred with many a mysteriee, 
And often crost with the priestes crewe, 
And often halowed with holy-water dewe." a 

In the sacrificial rites to Zeus poplar was used, we are 
assured by Pausanias, by the people of Ellis, and by Her- 
cules at Olympia. 22 The birch, the most notable tree next 
to the oak, in Germanic folk-thought, was believed to 
have been intimately associated with the thunder god and 
to exert a powerful influence over evil spirits of the earth 
and the air. It was closely connected with agriculture, the 
harvest and the weather, and associated with the cere- 
monies of Easter, May Day, and St. John's Day. It has 
been suggested that the oak originally derived its sanctity 
from the fact that its worshipers lived beneath it in early 
times. When the tree home was deserted a pillar cut 
from the sacred tree was carried to the new home to secure 
the protection of the indwelling deity, and later still the 
sacred tree was planted beside the temple. The hazel was 
sacred to the sky god and later to the thunder god. It 
was used as a talisman, an offering, a protector, an exor- 
ciser, as a magic rod, and as a harbinger of good fortune 
and fertility. 23 

The biblical story of Jacob and Laban 24 is a most val- 
uable contribution to the study of the beliefs under 
consideration, in whatever light we regard it. Whether 
it is fact or legend is immaterial, as its real interest and 



21 " Shepheard's Calendar," Globe Edition, p. 450. 
22 " Description of Greece," v. 14. 

23 Journal of American Folk-Lore, xiv. 203. 

24 Gen. xxx. 25-42. 



2i 4 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

importance to us centers in the fact that it is the record 
of that which was not regarded as improbable at the period 
in which it was written, and it is on this account worthy 
of careful consideration. After long and faithful serv- 
ice to the father of Rachel and Leah, Jacob becomes rest- 
less and desirous of returning to his own country, and asks 
for permission to depart, at the same time reminding his 
father-in-law how greatly the flocks and herds have pros- 
pered and multiplied under his care, and how little were 
his possessions at the beginning of his service. Laban, 
unwilling to lose so valuable an assistant, seeks to delay 
his departure. 

"What shall I give thee," he asks, "to remain?" 
" If thou wilt do this," responds Jacob, " thou shalt not 
give me aught, and I will again keep and feed thy 
flock." It was thereupon agreed between them that, 
according to the proposition of Jacob, " all the speckled 
and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the 
sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats " 
be removed three days' journey from the flocks of Laban. 
They were to be the hire of Jacob, and such were to be his 
portion of the flocks and herds thereafter, for his con- 
tinued service. Then Jacob " took him rods of green 
poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white 
strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in 
the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before 
the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the 
flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they 
came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the 
rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled and 
spotted. . . . And it came to pass whensoever the 
stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before 
the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might con- 
ceive among the rods. But when the cattle were feeble, 



MAKING THE HERDS PROLIFIC 215 

he put them not in; so the feebler were Laban's and the 
stronger Jacob's." 

That the white pilled rods would force the conception 
of striped and spotted offspring is but a repetition of the 
belief in the common principle of sympathetic magic. The 
rain maker brings rain by making an imitation of it, and an 
emblem of the sun, or a wheel of fire rolled down the 
hillside bring sunshine. Leaping in the flax makes it grow 
as high as the leap, and artificial thunder stimulates the 
real reverberation in the heavens. In the power ascribed 
to hazel and poplar, one surmises a lingering tradition of 
the worship of the moon, " the governess of floods," which 
may have come down from the days of bondage to the He- 
brews. The Egyptians had a belief, according to Plu- 
tarch, 25 in the generative influence of moonlight, and that 
the god Apis, the animated image of Osiris, was conceived 
by a strong generative light from the moon falling upon a 
cow, for which reason many of the decorations of Apis re- 
sembled the appearance of the moon, and his festival was 
held at the new moon of the month Phamanath, which was 
called " the entrance of Osiris into the moon," being the 
commencement of spring. The moon, being impregnated 
by the sun, again emitted and disseminated in the air the 
generative principles. The placing of the pilled rods in the 
water where the cattle drank, suggests also a possible con- 
nection of the story with the philosophical theory that 
humidity is the source of all things, and moisture the 
female principle, as Plutarch says, 26 from which is gen- 
erated existence, or, as Hippocrates taught, that all living 
creatures including both animals and men originated from 
the two principles fire and water, one of which gives life 

25 " Isis and Osiris," xliii. 

26 " Isis and Osiris," xxxvi ; " Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and 
Mythology," R. P. Knight, 151. 



216 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

and the other nourishment, or, as the old Egyptian priests 
taught, that not only the Nile, but everything moist was the 
outflowing of Osiris. 27 

Of the mystical connection of hazel and water there 
still survives a trace in the widespread belief that a divin- 
ing rod made of a forked branch of hazel, by its move- 
ments in the hands of certain ones, will reveal the locality 
of subterranean waters. If the recent statistics of a Ber- 
lin publication be true, 28 showing that the poplar next to 
the oak is more frequently struck with lightning than any 
other tree of the forest, the credulous will be inclined to 
accept that as evidence of its intimate relationship with the 
higher powers. 

The spring decorations of the medicine lodge of the 
Mandans with willows has already been referred to, but 
another ceremony of these Indians, known as the bull 
dance, is also described by Mr. Catlin, 29 and in some 
respects it reminds of the Lupercalia. It was thought that 
without a strict observance of it the buffalo would not 
return at each season. It is not apparent to what extent 
is was supposed to influence fecundity, but the ceremony 
seems to indicate a belief in its fertilizing power. There 
were four repetitions of the rite the first day, eight the 
second, twelve the third, and sixteen the fourth. The 
eight men who took part in it, like the runners at the 
Roman festival, were naked except for the buffalo skin 
with which they were robed, with horns and hoofs and 
tail on it. They looked through the eyes of the buffalo 
as through a mask. Each had a lock of buffalo hair 
tied to his ankle, and carried on his back a bunch of green 
willows, like a bundle of straw. 

27 " Isis and Osiris," xxxvi. 

2 " See Journal of American Folk-Lore, xiv. 59. 

28 " Manners and Customs of the North American Indians," i. 164. 



MAKING THE HERDS PROLIFIC 217 

Captain Bourke notes a ceremony of the Cheyennes for 
the purpose of getting an abundance of ponies, which con- 
sisted of a sacred dance around an altar encompassed with 
a semi-circle of buffalo chips. 30 On a certain day the 
Peruvians counted their flocks and offered sacrifices 
throughout the kingdom, that they might multiply. They 
rewarded the shepherds whose flocks increased the most 
and punished those whose flocks failed to produce. 31 

Observing the religious and semi-religious character of 
many of these ceremonies, which directly or indirectly were 
supposed to have a favorable bearing upon the fruitful- 
ness of the flocks and herds, and how closely allied has been 
the religious and pastoral life of these people, we may 
note in passing the curious custom which church records 
show to have prevailed in England in the sixteenth, sev- 
enteenth, and even in the eighteenth century, of requiring 
the parson, at his own expense, to keep a bull and a boar, 
for the use of the parish. Complaint was made against 
the vicar, a Mr. Pope, in the fifteenth year of the reign of 
Elizabeth, " that he hath not a bull at the parsonage, 
according to the old custome." The matter was brought 
before a jury in the Hundred Court of the town and lib- 
erty of Kingston-on-Thames, and it was ordered that the 
vicar must have due regard to the established custom 
" from henceforth on payne of X shillings for every 
lackinge." 32 

In Oriental ways of expression, the importance of estab- 
lished institutions and ceremonies was best understood by 
the conception of them as something revealed or made 
known by some supernatural means. They were com- 
manded by their deities. The penalties for violation 

30 " Scatalogic Rites," 21 3. 

31 " Rites of the Incas," C. R. Markham, 46. 

32 " Church-Lore Gleanings," T. F. Thistleton Dyer, 265. 



218 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

or neglect of these commands we may rightly accept as the 
interpretation of their belief as to what evil consequences 
would follow their neglect. " When ye have gathered in 
the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto Jahveh 
seven days. . . . And ye shall take you on the first 
day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, 
and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook." 
Obeying the command, the rain shall fall in due season, 
and the land yield her increase. " I will have respect unto 
you, and make you fruitful and multiply you . . . and 
if ye walk contrary unto me . . . wild beasts 
shall rob you of your children, and destroy 
your cattle, and make you few in number." 33 " The 
righteous shall flourish like the palm tree," says the 
Psalmist. 34 It flourished in dry and barren lands 
where other trees would not grow. It signifies longev- 
ity, and was the symbol of generative power. Beside 
the jambs of the vestibule in the temple of Solomon 
stood real palm trees, and within the temple were carved 
ones. 

As at the feast of the Tabernacles the Hebrews 
carried branches of palms and willows and myrtle in their 
hands, so the Egyptian Thoth carried a branch of 
palm in his hand and his priests wore them in their sandals. 
Homer says never before grew so goodly a shoot from the 
ground as the sapling of the palm which sprang up by the 
altar of Apollo at Delos. The artificial fecundation of 
the sacred palm was an important religious ceremony sym- 
bolical of fruitfulness and prosperity. That the English 
Maypole is a modern substitute for the mystic palm tree 
is suggested by Dr. Inman. 35 

33 Lev. xxiii. 40; xxvi. 9, 21, 22. 

34 Psalms cxii. 12. 

30 " Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism," 69 ; Odyssey, 
vi. 162; "Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology," 151. 



MAKING THE HERDS PROLIFIC 219 

The festival of the booths with its ceremonial use of the 
boughs of the palm is believed to be a survival of the older 
tree-worship when the trees themselves were really objects 
of adoration and fear lest failure to properly propitiate 
them should result in unfruitful years and unprolific 
herds and flocks. " In earliest times," says Dr. Toy, 
" the tree was itself divine; later it became sacred to some 
deity." ' 50 Boughs of palm trees carried in processions 
in modern times are, according to the Ritualists, in imita- 
tion of those which were strewn in the pathway of Jesus 
upon his entry into Jerusalem, and that perhaps may be 
regarded as a recognition of the earlier use of them in the 
ceremonies of the older Jews, and the surviving cus- 
toms are relics of ancient and forgotten rites. Ceremonies 
representing the marriage of the powers of vegetation 
have been common all over the earth. The tragedy of the 
youthful Tammuz and the goddess of fertility is enacted 
over and over again. " All such ceremonies," says Pro- 
fessor Frazer, " it must be remembered, are not, or at least 
were not, originally, mere spectacular or dramatic exhibi- 
tions. They are magical charms designed to produce the 
effect which they dramatically set forth." 37 Modifications 
of the beliefs once associated with them are embalmed in 
religious creeds, and adaptations of them are introduced 
into religious festivals of the highest civilizations. 
' There is scarcely room for doubt," says Professor Mor- 
ris Jastrow, " that in the story and ritual of the resurrec- 
tion, mythical elements illustrative of the changes of 
seasons have been embodied." 38 

In the orgies of Dionysus is was usual to consecrate an 
egg as the representative of that which generates and con- 

30 Polychrome Bible, Ezekiel, note 10 to chap. 6, p. 107. 
37 " The Golden Bough," i. 227. 
38 " The Study of Religions," 264. 



220 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

tains all things in itself. Eros, the god of love, was said 
to have sprung from the egg of night. An egg was the 
material of generation containing the seeds and germs of 
life and motion. 39 That the use of Easter eggs in modern 
times is to be traced to their use in ancient rituals when 
they were connected with ceremonies of fecundity and fer- 
tility, will hardly be questioned. 

In festivals and rites throughout Europe in later ages 
phallic symbols had considerable significance. It has been 
held by prominent writers that the palm tree was a phallic 
emblem, and that the Maypole was a survival of phallic 
worship. 40 Phallic images of Osiris were carried in pro- 
cession by the Egyptians to signify his procreative power. 
Legend says that Isis made and consecrated such an image 
and instituted festivals in its honor. Pausanias says that 
statues of Priapus were especially honored among the 
Greeks where there were herds. Festivals to the Russian 
god Jarillo, corresponding to the Greek Priapus, were held 
at the end of June, and are noted by writers of the sixteenth 
century. 

In Inverkeithing in Easter week, in 1282, the 
" Chronicles of Lanercroft " relate that a Catholic priest 
gathered the girls of the village and made them dance 
around a statue of Priapus, himself leading and carrying a 
phallic image. Called to an account by the Bishop, he 
gave as an explanation, that such performances were com- 
mon in his parish. In a ceremony to produce " needfire " 
by friction of two pieces of wood, which took place in 
Scotland in 1268, the image of the phallus was elevated 
and prayers recited. It was done to promote the welfare 
of the cattle in the time of plague. The worship of the 

39 Knight's "Ancient Art and Mythology," 13. 

40 Ibid. 12; "Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism," 69; 
" Religion and Lust," Dr. James Weir, 86. 



MAKING THE HERDS PROLIFIC 221 

fascinum was prohibited by Papal authority in the eighth 
century. The incantations accompanying it were con- 
demned except the chanting of the creed or Lord's prayer. 
The penalty for violation of the edict was doing " pen- 
ance on bread and water during three Lents." Offerings 
of phallic images were made to St. Foutin in France and 
suspended from the ceilings. The wine in which the 
images were bathed, collected in a bucket, was used as a 
remedy for barrenness. Similar images were destroyed 
by Protestants in the sixteenth century, and were used in 
Italy in the latter part 41 -of the eighteenth century. Of 
the phallic representations in native American art, Dr. 
Brinton says: "It frequently recurs in relations which 
authorize us to believe that it bore a religious meaning 
and was connected with the recognition and adoration of 
the reproductive principle in nature." 42 

The universality of the use of the cross among nations 
is a well known fact. Whatever its primitive meaning, or 
most primitive form, it is incontestable that it has some- 
times had a phallic significance. The figure of the cross 
associated with a huge phallic image was found in the cave 
at Elephanta in India. It signified conception among the 
Chinese. A piece of wood fastened horizontally to an up- 
right beam marked the height of the overflow of the Nile. 
Fertility was assured if the flood reached this mark, and 
famine followed if the waters failed to do so. " The 
most common significance attributed to the symbol," says 
H. H. Bancroft, " is fertility or generation." The cross 
and Maypole combined are suggested in the ancient feast 
of the " maturity of fruit." This festival was dedicated 
to Xiuhtecutli, the god of fire, representing fertility and 

41 " Description of Greece," ix. 31; "Religion and Lust," Dr. James 
Weir, 73, 74, 83. 

"' " Myths of the New World," 177. 



222 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

fecundity. A tall, straight tree, stripped of its branches 
except those close to the top, was set up in the court of the 
temple. A crossbeam thirty feet long was fastened to it 
close to the top, and above this was an image of the god 
made of dough, fancifully clothed and decorated with 
strips of paper. Naked and bound captives were borne to 
the summit of the temple by the priests and sacrificed, the 
people danced and sang, and boys scrambled to the top of 
the pole and hurled the fragments of the image among 
the crowd. 43 

Of the significance of the winds in their relation to soul, 
spirit and life in the belief of early American races, Dr. 
Brinton has ably written. He finds in the cross the emblem 
of the winds, the symbol of the four points of heaven. 44 
It is probably to some kindred conception of the wind 
as the source of life that the tale of Roman writers, of 
the impregnation of breeding mares by the wind, is to be 
traced. It is mentioned by both Virgil and Pliny, 45 
though the latter explains that the foals of mares so fecun- 
dated do not live above three years. Virgil places the 
mares, when in the spring their kindled hearts have caught 
the flame of love, on high rocks with their faces turned to 
catch the zephyr and snuff the light breezes, and so they 
become with foal. Then as they run hither and thither 
headlong over the rocks and cliffs, toward the quarter 
whence blows dusky Auster, saddening the heavens with 
chilling rain, a substance distils from their sides, which is 
gathered by malicious stepmothers, who mix it with herbs 
and baneful charms. Pliny apparently gives credence 
also to belief that the sexual passion in mares could be 
extinguished by cropping the manes. He thought it pos- 

43 " Native Races," ii. 329 ; iii. 469, 509. 
""Myths of the New World," 113-116. 
45 " Georgics," iii. 270; "Natural History," viii. 67. 



MAKING THE HERDS PROLIFIC 223 

sible that some animals were engendered by animals not 
themselves engendered. Many creatures had a mys- 
terious origin. A serpent was produced from the spinal 
marrow of a man, and mice were generated by licking. 
Pliny hesitates to accept the latter, however, although it 
was approved by Aristotle and Alexander the Great. 46 
The opinion is expressed by a philosoper of the seven- 
teenth century, Sir Kenelm Digby, that the earth, grown 
barren and lean, no longer brought forth of its own accord 
perfect animals, but yet produced such " insecta as mice 
and frogs and sometimes new fashioned animals." 

One method of facilitating conception, of which Grimm 
has made a note in his monumental work, is to bury a 
blind dog alive just inside the stable door. It also pre- 
vented cows from running away. 47 " Give us plenty of 
cattle," 48 exclaims the Hottentot, as he tosses a stone upon 
one of the graves of his hero god, Heitsieibib, as he passes 
by it in the narrow defiles in the mountains. It is highly 
improbable that the savage could give any clear idea of 
his reason for doing it, but by conformity to the custom he 
hopes in some way to secure the favor of the god, who, in 
his mythical lore, has already died and been resurrected 
several times. Is the act a magical rite for connecting, 
through himself and his stone, his herd with the fertiliz- 
ing power of the god, or does he cast away from 
himself and cattle, by this means, whatever hostile and 
hindering spirit might make his herd barren and 
unprofitable ? 

It is well authenticated that old Scotch farmers tied red 
thread upon their wives and their cattle, to prevent mis- 

48 " Natural History," x. 87. 
""Teutonic Mythology," 1808. 

48 " The Golden Bough," ii. 2, quoting from Sir James E. Alexander s 
" Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa." 



224 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

carnage. It is referred to by Pennant and others. 49 
Whether this custom was a relic of the old Roman festival 
or not, a kinship is suggested. The thread has taken the 
place of the goat thongs, and its color symbolizes the blood 
with which the runners' foreheads were smeared. 

40 See " Medicine men of the Apache," J. G. Bourke, Ninth Annual 
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 578, 579. 



CHAPTER XIII 

TRIAL AND PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS 

" Thy currish spirit 
Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter, 
Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet, 
And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam, 
Infused itself in thee." * 

Werewolves have been characterized as among the 
most " uncanny creatures of the human imagination." 
Belief in their reality dates from the most ancient times and 
is still found among savage races and in remote corners of 
civilized nations. So bad was the reputation of the Neuri, 
that the Scythians and the Greeks settled in Scythla told 
Herodotus that each Neurian in every year became a 
wolf for a few days, and then was restored again to his 
natural state. Notwithstanding the willingness of the 
Scythians to support their assertion with their oaths, the 
old historian remained incredulous. 2 It is affirmed in one 
of the songs of Virgil that Moeris, by the power of cer- 
tain herbs gathered at Pontus, was turned into a wolf, 
and, hid within the woods, could call up spirits from the 
deep of the grave, and draw sown corn away to other 
fields. 3 The belief in werewolves was noted by Pliny, 
and old Scandinavian Sagas had their werewolf warriors. 
It was held that certain men, by natural gift or magic, for 
a time turned into ravenous beasts. Medicine men of 

1 " Merchant of Venice," iv. i. 
2 " Melpomene," 105. 
3 Eclogue, viii. 

225 



226 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

the American Indians could turn to coyotes or wolves. 4 
In some countries it was more commonly a cat. Writers 
of the early seventeenth century describe the process by 
which sorcerers anointed their bodies with unguents pre- 
pared under the Devil's auspices, put on an enchanted 
girdle, and assumed the likeness of wolves or other ani- 
mals, as they appeared to others, and had the shape and 
nature of such animals, to their own thinking. That for 
many centuries the terror of the werewolf was a reality is a 
historical fact. The origin of the belief is not so easily de- 
termined. Undoubtedly belief in the possibility of such 
transformation was the suggesting cause which led many 
to believe the change actually took place in their own per- 
sons. Some have traced it to the Pythagorean doctrine of 
transmigration, 

" That souls of animals infuse themselves 
Into the trunks of men." 

Dr. Tylor calls the doctrine of werewolves a " temporary 
metempsychosis," 5 and points out its consistency with the 
theory that a man's soul may go out of his body and into 
that of a beast or bird, and with the opinion that men may 
be transformed into animals, ideas which have had an 
important place in the belief of mankind, from savagery 
onward. 

The connection of evil spirits and animals goes back 
to the remotest antiquity. In the old Egyptian " Papy- 
rus of Sayings " (circa 1300 B.C.) , is is said, " the ugly one 
appears with his limbs wrapped in ornamental cloth- 
ing," ° suggesting the enchanted girdle of the werewolf. 
In the early beliefs of the Babylonians, the demons were 
always given some shape, animal or human. The seven 

4 Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 458, 459. 

5 " Primitive Culture," i. 308. 

" Oldest Books in the World," I. Myer, 254. 



PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS 227 

evil spirits were said to be horses bred on the mountains. 
They were powerful among the gods and hostile to 
mankind. 

" To work mischief in the street they settle themselves in the highway. 
Evil are they, they are evil, 
Seven are they, they are seven, seven, and again seven are they." 7 

Neither men, women, or animals were safe from the power 
of the demons. They drove birds" out of their nests, 
struck down lambs and bulls. They glided noiselessly as 
serpents into homes and dwellings, and made their way 
into the food and drink of men and beasts, in this way 
acquiring possession and control of them and their actions. 
It was the crowning grace of the wisdom of Solomon that 
he learned the formula for expelling demons, and was 
able to impart it to those who came after him, by virtue 
of which knowledge, according to the Jewish historian, 
Eleazar, in the presence of Vespasian and his sons, and his 
captains, and the multitude of soldiers, drew the evil 
spirit from the nostrils of the demoniac. 8 The arch fiend 
himself could assume the form of any beast of the field, 
and his first appearance in Hebrew tradition is as a ser- 
pent. Milton says he roamed the orb to find, 

" Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom 
To enter, and his dark suggestion hide 
From sharpest sight," 

and after due deliberation enclosed himself in the ser- 
pent's mazy folds, for which service as intermediate host, 
swift and certain followed the punishment inflicted upon 
the unfortunate beast, humiliated evermore, and " cursed 
above all cattle," or as the Jewish historian says, " de- 
prived of his speech and the use of his legs, and with 

'"Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," M. Jastrow, 264. 
8 " Antiquities of the Jews," viii. 3. 



228 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

poison inserted under his tongue." 9 If the statement of 
Josephus is accepted, the conclusion of Wesley would seem 
to be warranted that the serpent was harmless until after 
the Fall of. Eve, when the poison was inserted under his 
tongue. Milton says his shape was " pleasing and 
lovely " as he approached Eve, 

" not with indented wave, 
Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear, 
Circular base of rising folds, that towered 
Fold over fold, a surging maze." 

However men may wrangle over the significance of the 
Fall of Man, verily the fall of the serpent has been com- 
plete. There is little, if any, doubt that the story came to 
the Hebrews after the captivity and was of Aryan origin, 
and old at the time it was adopted into the sacred records 
of Israel. A similar Persian legend is told of Ahriman, 
the evil spirit, who transformed himself into a serpent by 
eating a certain kind of fruit, and then went gliding about 
the earth annoying mankind. 

In examining some of the curious court trials of animals 
that took place during several centuries in many coun- 
tries of Europe, it has seemed proper to call attention 
briefly to some of the strange beliefs long widely accepted, 
which seem to the writer to have been the real source from 
which the famous prosecutions of the Medieval and Middle 
Ages sprang. It has been customary with some writers 
to hold the lawmakers of the period as void of sensibility 
and conscience, and to regard these cases as spectacular 
exhibitions of farcical jurisprudence. The attorneys have 
been charged with bringing the actions for personal notor- 
iety and mercenary ends. We prefer to regard this 
episode in the history of humanity more seriously, and 

"Gen. iii. 14; Josephus, "Antiquity of the Jews," i. 1. 



PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS 229 

accept the result as the logical outgrowth of their intel- 
lectual environments, and the doctrines to which they had 
given adherence, some of which had been prominent in the 
beliefs of the older civilizations. Accepting the views of 
modern thinkers of " the kinship of mind in man and the 
lower animals," 10 and the way seems clear to charge the 
latter in some degree with moral responsibility for their 
actions, however inequitable it may be considered to hold 
them accountable for the violation of laws in the making 
of which they were not consulted, but it is very unlikely 
that the prosecutions of animals at any period have to any 
extent been influenced by considerations of this character. 
More practical problems presented themselves. 

In a Swiss village a rooster was arrested, charged with 
having laid an egg. The defense claimed that rooster's 
eggs were valuable in the preparation of certain kinds of 
medicine. Nevertheless, the prisoner was adjudged guilty 
and condemned to death as a devil and " most injurious 
to all of the Christian faith and race." If one is inclined 
to levity, he may remember that cock's eggs were an 
accepted fact, and that from them the deadly cocatrice 
was hatched, which, if men " see first they kill, if seen they 
die." It was alleged at the trial that Satan employed 
witches to hatch such eggs. This prosecution occurred 
in 1474. The belief in such eggs is often made use of in 
Shakespeare's lines, and two hundred and fifty years after 
the conviction the possibility of cock's eggs was not wholly 
settled, as appears from these lines in the British Apollo: 

" Ye sons of wisdom, charming youths, 
Resolve a doubting fair, 
Whether or no there's any truth 
In what old folks declare; 

10 " The Dawn of Reason," James Weir, 218; "Evolutional Ethics and 
Animal Psychology," E. P. Evans, 167. 



2 3 o MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

They will affirm that they have seen 
Cock's eggs, which I declare, 
In my opinion seems akin 
To eggs laid by a mare." u 

It was held by the prosecution in this case that the punish- 
ment of animals for wrong doing found authority in the 
legislative code of the ancient Hebrews. " If an ox gore 
a man or a woman that they die ; then the ox shall be surely 
stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of 
the ox shall be quit." 12 True, if to the knowledge of the 
owner, the ox had been wont in times past, to push with his 
horns, the guilt was shared between them. If a man- 
servant or a maid-servant was the injured party, it might 
be settled, on the part of the owner, with shekels of silver, 
but the ox was still to be stoned. So at certain festivals 
of the Athenians oxen were brought to the altar and 
received their sentences. One of them was sometimes 
offered up in sacrifice and the rest spared, the punish- 
ment of one being accepted as an atonement for the offenses 
of all. One of the laws of Solon said that if a dog had 
bitten a man, it was to be delivered up bound to a log four 
cubits in length. 13 

In the Hebrew law, the transgressions of the people 
gave occasion for the infliction of punishment upon their 
beasts. The oxen, asses, and sheep of Achan were stoned 
and burned because their owner had coveted and stolen the 
Babylonian garments, their shekels of silver, and wedges 
of gold. 14 To punish the Egyptians for their obstinacy, 
the first born of the cattle were smitten. For disobe- 
dience, their vines and their sycamores were destroyed, and 
their cattle given up to the hail, " and their flocks to hot 

11 " Credulities Past and Present," 462 ; " Natural History Lore and 
Legend," 236. 

12 Exodus xxi. 28. 

13 Plutarch, " Solon." 
"Joshua vii. 24. 



PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS 231 

thunderbolts." The goat selected by lot was burdened 
with the sins of the people and driven away into the wilder- 
ness, and the blood of slaughtered victims sprinkled in 
the holy places made atonement for the uncleanness of the 
unrighteous people. 15 

In later centuries, as already noticed, the evils that 
afflict humanity by magical ceremonies are transferred to 
animals. The devils of the demoniac are driven into 
swine. The Moor, suffering from headache, beats a lamb 
or a goat till it falls down and the disease is communi- 
cated to the beast. The Bechuana king seats himself upon 
an ox stretched upon the ground, the doctor pours water 
over the king's head till it runs down over his body, and 
the head of the ox is held in a vessel of water till death 
ensues. It is then announced to the people that the king's 
disease, transferred to the beast, caused its death. 16 

Certain beasts in the Middle Ages were held to be espe- 
cially willing to compact with evil ones, and animals once 
consecrated to the gods, following the fortunes of the cast- 
off deities, were pressed into the service of the devil, and 
became the embodiment of evil. The sacred white horse 
which reverently accompanied the army of Cyrus and pre- 
ceded Xerxes in his famous retreat, whose neighing elected 
Darius king, which in the time of Tacitus was prophetic 
of good or evil with the Germans, becoming an omen of 
death by its neighing and snorting, and the cow which 
had drawn the ark of Jahveh and been yoked to the car 
of Nerthus, which had figured in the creation of the sons 
of the ancestor of Odin and his brothers by whom the 
frost giant Ymir was slain, and the ass which Jahveh had 
used as his mouthpiece to communicate with Balaam, 17 



16 Exodus xii. 29; Psalm9 lxxviii. 47; Lev. xvi. 14-21. 

18 "The Golden Bough," iii. 14. 

" " Germania," chap, x; Grimm, 665; 1 Samuel vi. 8; Numbers xxii. 28. 



232 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

were degraded in the evolution of religious beliefs to com- 
mon malefactors and paid the penalty of their evil 
associations and transgressions in public execution. 

Symbols of animals became conspicuous in ecclesiastical 
architecture and church furnishings, and those of evil 
omen were forced into the service of the church. This was 
deemed, according to Professor Evans, " a hard hit at the 
devil, and a masterly stroke of pious policy." 18 To free 
the degraded beasts from these evil reputations which had 
been forced upon them, it is probable the custom was intro- 
duced of blessing them by the saints and sprinkling them 
with holy water. 

They have been subjected to trial and prosecution as 
malefactors alike by rude and uncultured tribes and by 
civilized pagan and Christian nations. Criminal courts 
have condemned them to death within the last half cen- 
tury in Montenegro and other countries of Europe. 19 

In the trials of the Middle Ages from the twelfth cen- 
tury onward, advocates were appointed for the defense of 
the animals and due processes of law were observed. 
From 1 1 20 to 1741 there are records of ninety-two such 
processes in the French courts. Domestic animals were 
tried in the common criminal courts and death was the 
punishment on conviction. Wild animals of noxious char- 
acter were brought before the ecclesiastical courts, where 
it was held that the church had full power and authority 
to exorcise, anathematise, and excommunicate all animate 
and inanimate things. Accused animals were committed 
to prison at the place where the trial was to take place. 
Accusations were made in proper legal form, depositions 
of witnesses were taken, and if the prisoner was proved 
guilty of homicide, he was condemned to death by the 

18 " Animal Symbolism," 179. 

10 " Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology," 13. 



PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS 233 

judge, by strangulation, and hung by the two back legs to 
an oak tree or gibbet, according to the custom of the 
country. Experts were sometimes appointed by the court 
to investigate the extent of damages committed. If the 
beasts failed to appear before the court to which they were 
cited, judgment was taken by default, and an admonition 
was sometimes issued, warning them to disappear before 
a specified time. The failure of one condemned to heed 
the admonition of the court, was attributed " neither to 
the injustice of the sentence, nor want of power of the 
court, but to the malevolent antagonism of Satan." 20 
On the solemn occasion of their trials, the dumb beasts 
were sometimes clothed in the garb of men. A judge of 
Falaise, in 1386, condemned a sow, which had torn the 
face and arm of a child, to be similarly mutilated in the leg 
and head and afterwards hanged, a sentence which was 
carried out in the public square, the criminal being clothed 
like a man. A legal treatise as late as 1668 gives forms 
for indictments and methods of pleading in proceedings 
against animals. In Switzerland, at least, the testimony 
of animals, on some occasions, was introduced into court, 
so to speak, for if a man living alone killed a burglar 
breaking into his house, he must produce a domestic ani- 
mal, as a dog, a cat, or a cock, that had been an inmate of 
the house and witnessed the death of the person, before 
which witness he must declare his innocence under oath. 
If the dumb witness failed to contradict his affirmation, a 
verdict of justifiable homicide was entered. This ordeal 
was perhaps based on belief in the miraculous interference 
of God in causing some manifestation in the beast to pre- 
vent the escape of a guilty man. 

In the civil and criminal laws of Sardinia in the four- 
teenth century, oxen and cows might be legally killed if 

20 " Credulities Past and Present," 295. 



234 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

taken in the act of committing a crime. Asses found in 
a cultivated field not belonging to the owner of the beasts 
were condemned to lose one ear for the first offense and 
both for the next, and for the third offense the animal was 
confiscated by the prince. The Mayor of St. Martin de 
Laon, in 1494, presided at the trial of a hog for killing a 
child in its cradle, and passed sentence upon it that it 
be strangled and hanged upon a gibbet at Avin. In 1497 
a sow was condemned to death for eating the chin of a 
child, in the village of Charonne, and the flesh was ordered 
by the court to be thrown to the dogs. The owner of the 
animal, in this case, was ordered by the court to make a 
pilgrimage, on the day of Pentecost, in atonement for his 
culpable negligence, it is to be presumed. In a case in the 
fourteenth century, in the vicinity of Lausanne, though a 
child which a pig had killed was restored to life by bring- 
ing out an image of St. Pancrace, the pig was nevertheless 
haled before the Bishop's court and sentenced to death 
for murder. In the latter part of the succeeding century 
in the same locality, on account of the great numbers of 
cockchafers infesting it, they were cited before the Bishop's 
court to answer charges against them. One Perrodet, 
who had then been dead six months, was assigned to them 
for counsel, but as neither counsel nor culprits appeared 
judgment was rendered against them by default, and the 
insects were excommunicated in the name of the Holy 
Trinity and the Blessed Virgin, and ordered to quit forever 
the diocese. 21 

" Memoires de la Societe Royale Academique de 
Savoie " show that in 1545 a species of beetle made rav- 
ages in the vineyards near St. Julien de Maurienne and 
that legal proceedings were begun against them. A 

21 For account of this and numerous other trials, see " Credulities Past 
and Present," by William Jones, chap. vii. 



PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS 235 

lawyer was assigned to defend them, but the suit was dis- 
continued because the insects suddenly left. Forty-two 
years later the insects returned again and the proceedings 
were renewed. A judge was named to try them and an 
attorney to defend them. The conclusion of the trial was 
an order from the court for the inhabitants to provide a 
piece of land outside the vineyards, of certain extent, con- 
taining trees and shrubbery, where the insects might live 
without troubling the vines. The. land was pledged by 
the inhabitants, on condition of right of way through it, 
and refuge upon it in case of war. A few days later, on 
refusal of defendants to accept of the land, the court was 
asked by counsel for the people to prescribe other penal- 
ties. Trial was resumed and counsel for the defense plead 
that the land assigned to his clients was worthless and pro- 
duced nothing. The final ending of the case is unknown. 
Similar proceedings were taken against caterpillars in 
Pont-du-Chateau in Auvergne, in 1690, when the animals 
were excommunicated and relegated to an uncultivated 
spot designated. 

There are records of legal processes against doves in 
Canada, in the seventeenth century, against ants in Brazil, 
in the eighteenth century, and cows in Poitou. Leonard 
Vair, a Spanish monk, wrote a work about the middle of 
the fifteenth century, in which he held that animals were 
engendered from the rubbish of the earth, and the execu- 
tion of them was condemned. The Ritual of Evreus 
declared in 1606 that no one should exorcise animals nor 
use prayers or formulas against them without permission 
of the cardinal. 

While sows, pigs, and vermin seem to have been most 
frequently the subjects of these legal processes, the chron- 
icles of a French savant, M. Berriat Saint-Prix, published 
in 1829, show that many other animals between 11 20 and 



2 3 6 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

1 74 1 were brought to the bar of justice, to answer serious 
charges against them for crimes and misdemeanors. A 
horse was condemned to death in 1389 at Dijon, a bull in 
1 5 14 in Compte de Valois, ponies in 1600 near Dieppe, 
in 1 60 1 at Provins, in 1604 at Joinville, in 1606 near 
Langres, in 1621 at La Rochelle, in 1633 at Bellac, in 
1666 at Tours, and in 1692 at Moulins. The trial of a 
mule is recorded at Montpelier in 1565, and at Chef- 
boutonne in 1624, of she-asses at Loudun, Sens, Le Mans, 
Corbie, Vaudes, and the Parliament of Paris, from 1542 
to 1667. 

It would be tedious to follow at greater length the 
details of these curious legal proceedings, and only brief 
reference will be made to two more cases of considerable 
celebrity. A sow and her six pigs were tried at a town in 
France for having murdered and eaten a baby. The 
mother hog was condemned to death but her offspring were 
acquitted on the grounds of their youth, the bad example 
of their mother, and the lack of proof that they had eaten 
of the child. At a trial of rats in the diocese of Autun, 
after numerous delays on the pretext of giving the culprits 
a chance to appear, it was proposed to take judgment by 
default, when Chassaune, the distinguished advocate for 
the defense, denounced the whole proceedings as illegal, 
and demanded protection from the cats of the locality 
for his clients, the rats, while going to and from the courts. 
The prosecution being unable to guarantee this, the case 
was dismissed. 



CHAPTER XIV 

HARVESTING 

"Hark! the sickles now they ply; 
See ! the sheaves in masses lie ; 
Reared anon like ramparts high, — 

So this ox with crooked horn 
And the tawny hide we kill: 

Rites men kept ere we were born 
Thus be kept and copied still." 1 

" Come, sons of summer, by whose toile 
We are the lords of wine and oile, 
By whose tough labours and rough hands, 
We rip up first, then reap our lands, 
Crown'd with the ears of corne, now come, 
And to the pipe sing Harvest-Home." 2 

Offerings of first fruits of the harvest to deities, 
chiefs, kings, or ancestral spirits, or other ceremonials and 
festivities commemorating the maturity of the season's 
crops, are customs that have been world-wide, and which 
date from the earliest efforts in agriculture. In later and 
higher civilizations the prominent idea connected or asso- 
ciated with such anniversaries is undoubtedly an expres- 
sion of thankfulness for the blessings of the harvest. It 
is written in the history of the early times of the Plymouth 
Colonists, that in one of the first summers in New England 
there was no rain from the middle of May to the middle 
of July, and their corn began to wither and languish, and 

1 " The Shi King," Jennings, iv. iii. 6. 
2 Herrick, " Hesperides." 

237 



238 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

ruin threatened all their summer's husbandry, when in 
their distress they set apart a day for fasting and prayer 
" to deprecate the calamity that might bring them to fast- 
ing through famine." The morning of this day showed 
no signs of rain, but before night the sky was overcast 
with clouds and such easy, gentle, and plentiful showers 
followed that their corn was revived and their harvest 
saved, and even the pagan Indians were forced to recog- 
nize the goodness of the Englishmen's God who had sent 
rain unaccompanied with such " tempest and thunder " as 
they were accustomed to have with the rain that followed 
after their " powwowing " for it. Then the learned and 
devout author adds: " The harvest which God thus gave 
to this pious people caused them to set apart another day 
for solemn Thanksgiving to the glorious Hearer of 
Prayers ! " 3 While the language of the historian would 
seem to warrant the inference of belief in these observ- 
ances, and the character of their worship, as factors in 
securing satisfactory results from their agricultural labors 
and the perpetuity of their harvests, it is earlier rites of 
natives races upon the continent that give expression to 
the more primitive and vital significance of them. The 
beginning of harvest festivals in America, as in other 
countries, is lost in the mists of prehistoric times. 

In the tradition of the Memonomini Indians, Shekat- 
cheke'nau was made out of the bear by their hero god. 
In the charge of this chief was placed the wild rice, to 
them a most important article of food, and when the time 
for the harvest came, says the legend, he called his people 
together, and made a feast and smoked, and asked the 
Great Spirit to give them fair weather during the harvest 
season, and they always had stormless harvests afterwards. 
The Indians of White Earth reservation, Minnesota, gave 

8 " Magnalia," Cotton Mather, i. 54. 



HARVESTING 239 

a rice feast known as the Manomin, in the fall after gath- 
ering rice, and before the winter hunt, a thanksgiving, 
with prayers to Manitou. Before the rice is gathered, the 
Ojibwa, in Canada, make a feast, and none are allowed 
to gather the grain before. The first fruits of the Dakotas 
are set apart for a holy feast, at which those Indians 
only who are entitled to wear the badge of having slain 
an enemy, are invited. The Green Corn dance of the 
Cherokee was held preliminary to eating the first new 
corn. It was, says Mr. Mooney, " a most solemn tribal 
function, a propitiation and expiation for the sins of the 
past year, an amnesty for public criminals, and a prayer 
for happiness and prosperity for the year to come." Only 
those were allowed to take part who had prepared them- 
selves by prayer and fasting and purification. No one 
dared to taste the corn till after the ceremonies. Seven 
ears of the last year's crop were always put aside in order 
to attract the corn till the new crop was ripened and it was 
time for the dance, when this was eaten with the rest. 
Care was taken in eating the first new corn after the dance, 
not to blow upon it to cool it, lest it cause a windstorm to 
beat down the standing crop in the field. 4 

An annual thanksgiving is observed by the Minatarees 
of Upper Missouri, which takes place when the maize is 
fit for eating green, when they dance and feast and sacri- 
fice for. a week or ten days. Before anyone is allowed 
to eat of the new corn, a kettle full is boiled for the Great 
Spirit as a sacrifice while four medicine men with stalks of 
corn in one hand and a rattle in the other dance around the 
kettle, chanting a song of thanksgiving. The fire and 
ashes are then buried in the ground and new fire by friction 
is made on the same spot. 5 

4 Nineteenth Annual Ethnological Report, 423, 1091, 1093. 
6 George Catlin, i. 189. 



2 4 o MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

The chief festival of the year of the Creeks is that of the 
first fruits. None must taste or handle the new corn till 
afterwards. A strict ritual is observed in preparation for 
the sacred rite. Purgatives and fasting are preliminaries 
with them as with the Seminoles, before eating the 
new corn. Danger might follow the intermingling of the 
sacred first fruits with common food in their stomachs. 
In this connection Professor Frazer calls attention to the 
custom of Catholics in partaking of the Eucharist fasting, 
and of the Mexicans in refusing to eat other than conse- 
crated bread on the day of their solemn communion, which 
they " revere as the very flesh and bones of their God," 
and dare not defile " the portion of God in their 
stomachs with common food." 6 

At festivals held in Nicaragua, which Dr. Brinton says 
took place at the time of the maize harvest, priests, chiefs, 
and all the men drew blood with knives of flint from their 
tongues and genital organs, let it drip upon the sheaves of 
maize and ate the grain as a blessed food. At a similar 
festival in Peru a human victim was immolated and the 
Virgins of the Sun mixed his blood with meal and baked it 
into cakes, which were distributed and eaten, and one of 
them sent to every holy shrine and temple in the kingdom. 
At an Aztec harvest festival a victim, usually the most 
atrocious criminal found in the jails, was crushed between 
two great stones, perhaps to symbolize the grinding of 
the maize, and first fruits were offered to the sun. In the 
Aztec rite in honor of Tezcatlipoca, of whom one of their 
hymns says, " a dreadful god is our god Tezcatlipoca, 
he is the only god, he will answer us," a youth was chosen 
and named for the god. For months his every wish was 
gratified and he received the honors of divinity, and then 
at the appointed time, on the summit of the sacred pyra- 

°"The Golden Bough," ii. 340. 



HARVESTING 241 

mid, the priest cut open his breast and tore out the bleeding 
heart, and his fresh blood was mixed with dough, which 
was divided among the worshipers and eaten, and so they 
became partakers of his divine nature. The Spanish Mis- 
sionaries, observing the resemblance of this ceremony to 
the Christian Eucharist, attributed it to the malicious sug- 
gestions of the Devil, " but the psychologist," says Dr. 
Brinton, " sees in them the same inherent tendency, the 
same yearning of the feeble human soul to reach out 
towards and make itself a part of the Divine Mind." 7 

When the corn was ripe the Mayas plucked the finest 
ears for offerings to the gods. They were sometimes 
given to the poor. At the harvest the corn was heaped 
up in the field and was not supposed to be moved until the 
corn itself gave some signal that it was ready. The fall- 
ing of an ear from the heap, or the springing up of a fresh 
blade, was interpreted as the sign waited for. 

The Aztecs held a solemn festival about the middle of 
September to Chicomecoatl, goddess of food and drink, 
under whose guardianship was every kind of seed and 
vegetable served for food. She was sometimes referred 
to as the " seven ears of corn," and as the " goddess of the 
tender ears of maize." She was the guide to the home 
of abundance. Festivals were also held in honor of 
Xochipilli, the deity who gave and protected flowering 
plants with whom was associated Cinteotl, god of the 
maize, to whom the quetzal bird sang its song at midnight, 
according to the hymns. 8 

A brotherly law of the Incas required the inhabitants 
of every village to help each other in gathering the harvest. 
Mr. Markham says that at the commencement of it the 

'"Religions of Primitive Peoples," 190, 191; "Native Races," ii. 19, 710; 
" Rig Veda Americanus," xix. 

8 " Native Races," ii. 317, 720; "Rig Veda Americanus," 40, 60. 



242 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

priest offered up a lamb in sacrifice with prayers and 
thanksgiving, the ceremonies continuing for four days. 9 

Turning to the peoples of the Old World, whether we 
examine the records and traditions of extinct civilizations, 
those of greatest present power and prominence, or the 
customs of people not yet far advanced from barbarism, 
there are to be traced some common features in all their 
ceremonial institutions associated with the ingathering of 
the products of the fields. 

The song of Theocritus glorifies the goddess with pop- 
pies and sheaves in her hands, whose harvest festival 
he attended with his chosen friends, where the fair- 
robed Demeter was receiving her largess of first fruits 
of the season, for verily in rich measure she had " filled 
their threshing-floor with barley grain." 10 

Min was the god of the generative power of nature 
with the Egyptians, and it was to him the harvest festivals 
were dedicated for the abundance which he caused to 
spring forth from the earth. Sculptures of the god 
remain from the prehistoric age, showing him decorated 
with a feather and a garland of flowers. 11 Offerings of 
first fruits are believed to have been established among the 
Egyptians more than two thousand years before the Chris- 
tian Era, and to have been associated with harvest 
festivals from a very early date, though it is probable that 
with the . Egyptians, as with the Babylonians and the 
Chinese, such offerings, in the earliest times, were more 
specifically made to the manes or shades of the deceased 
ancestors, as indicated in the language in which the 

""Primitive Civilizations," E. J. Siracox, ii. 455; "Rites of the Incas," 
52. 

"Idyl vii. 

11 " History of Egypt," Petrie, i. 14; "Religion of the Ancient Egyptians," 
Wiedemann, 127. 



HARVESTING 243 

deceased in the character of Horus describes the service 
rendered to his father Osiris, as given in the ritual: " I 
have worked the fields for thee. I have filled the wells 
for thee. ... I have made thy bread from Tu of 
red corn, I have made thy drink from Tepu of white corn. 
I have plowed for thee in the fields of the Aahu, I have 
mown it for thee there." 12 

In the Chinese book of rites, the " Li Chi," one of the 
five classics, is a passage supposed to have been retained 
from the earliest material from which the book in its later 
form was compiled, which gives a description of a great 
sacrifice made by the son of heaven, in which offerings were 
made to the legendary inventors of the different grains and 
arts of husbandry, a sort of harvest festival in which 
proper returns were made to the ancient wise men under 
whom they were blessed. Beasts and birds were repre- 
sented at the sacrificial ceremonies. The cats also were 
permitted to have representatives at the feast, because 
they destroyed the rats and the mice which injured the 
fruits of the fields, and the tigers were likewise remem- 
bered, for they destroyed the wild boars which ruined the 
crops. Offerings were made to these representatives and 
to the inventors of dykes and water channels, as these were 
accounted accessories of husbandry. 13 

Many odes and hymns of the Chinese are indicative of 
a close relationship between their ancestral rites and cere- 
monies connected with agriculture. In speaking of them 
Mr. Legge says: " Those great seasonal occasions have 
always been what we might call grand family reunions, 
where the dead and the living meet, eating and drinking 
together, where the living worship the dead, and the dead 
bless the living." An ode in praise of Hi of Lu, a 

""Primitive Civilizations," i. 152. 

13 Ibid. i. 148, referring to Li Chi, ix. 11. 



244 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

descendant of How-tsih, who began his reign in 650 B.C., 
commends him as one who was never remiss in sacrificing 
the red unblemished bulls to his ancestors in the spring and 
autumn ceremonies. A harvest ode is translated: 

" Exuberant is the year ! 
Of millet and rice what store! 
And the corn lofts high are filled 
With million loads and more, 
For brewing sweet drinks and strong, 
For offerings to our sires 
And grandames gone before, 
And for all each rite requires." " 

The beginning of the vintage among the Romans in some 
places was made publicly by the priests. At Rome the 
Flamen Dialis commenced the vintage. When it was time 
to begin plucking the grapes he sacrificed a lamb to Jupi- 
ter. The ritual law of Tusculum forbade the sale of 
wine till the priest had performed the initiatory rite. 
Offerings of first fruits are thought to have been made 
primarily for magical effects, and subsequently regarded, 
in part, as service of a spirit. Vacuna, the ancient god- 
dess of leisure, was worshiped by the husbandmen, after 
the gathering in of the harvest, that they might obtain her 
favor for the winter of repose; and Vesta, the mistress of 
the hearth, used to bake the bread, and honor was done to 
the ass that turned the millstones: "Behold," says the 
poet, " the loaves of bread hang down from the asses 
bedecked with garlands, and the wreaths of flowers cover 
the rough millstones." When the horse was sacrificed in 
October in the Campus Martius the head was decked with 
cakes. Virgil writes: " Nor let a man of them dare to 
put a sickle to the ripe corn till, in honor of Ceres, he has 

""The Shi King," William Jennings, iv. ii. 4; iv. iv. 4; "The Religions 
of China," James Legge, 81. 



HARVESTING 245 

bound his head with oaken wreaths, and danced in un- 
couth measure chanting hymns." 15 

The Jews, in common with other ancient peoples, offered 
to Jahveh the first fruits of the harvest. Music and danc- 
ing and feasting attended the season's rejoicing. " The 
offerings of first fruits," says Robertson Smith, " was con- 
nected with the idea that it was not lawful or safe to eat 
of the new fruit until the god has received his due. The 
offering makes the whole crop lawful food." 16 

When all the fruits of their labors were gathered in, 
the law required them to observe the feast of ingathering, 
in accordance with the prescribed formulas. A sheaf of 
the first fruits was carried to the priest, who waved it 
before Jahveh on the morrow after the Sabbath, offering 
at the same time a he-lamb without blemish, and flour and 
oil and wine. The husbandman must eat " neither bread, 
nor parched corn, nor green ears," until an offering had 
been carried unto Jahveh. The land yielded its fruit and 
they dwelt therein in safety if the ritual was obediently 
observed. But when they reaped the harvest they must 
not " make clean riddance of the corners of the field," 
nor gather the gleaning. " Thou shalt leave them unto 
the poor and the stranger." 17 Leaving a part of the crop 
ungathered.in the field, as the Hebrews did, is a custom not 
unknown to other peoples. The explanation, that it is 
left for the poor and the stranger, clearly belongs to a 
period of more advanced ethical conceptions than that 
from which the custom originally sprang, if we may judge 
from the reasons assigned for similar customs elsewhere. 
In the island of Nias, to prevent the depredations of wan- 

15 "Worship of the Romans," Frank Granger, 298; "Fasti," vi. 311; 
" Georgics," i. 345. 

16 " Religion of the Semites," 223. 

17 Lev. xxiii. 10-14; xxiii. 22. 



246 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

dering spirits in the rice at harvest, a miniature field sown 
with all the plants that grow was dedicated to them. It 
is not uncommon to leave fragments of the crop for the 
spirit of vegetation. Handfuls of flax were left in Bavar- 
ian fields for the Wood-woman, the Scotchman left a few 
stalks for " the aul' man," though it was more commonly 
left for the Old Woman, or the Corn-woman: 

" We give it to the Old Woman ; 
She shall keep it. 
Next year may she be to us 
As kind as this time she has been." 18 

The source of many curious customs seems to have been 
the belief that the last sheaf or last grain taken from the 
field was the peculiar property of the indwelling spirit that 
gave life to the plant, which would again come to life in 
the new grain. This spirit was sometimes conceived as 
taking the form of some animal, which fled before the 
reapers, or was captured in the last sheaf and killed. A 
sudden illness of the reaper was charged to contact with 
this spirit. It was a wolf, a goat, or a cock, and would 
hide itself in the gathered grain, to be driven out finally, 
perhaps, with the last strokes of the flail. Children were 
warned against the cock that sat in the cornfield. As 
the last sheaf was bound, a live cock might be let loose in 
the field, to be chased by the harvesters till they caught 
it, or the last sheaf was made up into the form of a cock, 
and called the harvest cock, or the image of one was some- 
times carried on a pole and attached to the harvest wagon. 
Again, the figure of a cock was nailed over the door and 
remained till the ensuing harvest, or a live cock was buried 
in the earth, excepting the head, which was stricken off 
with a blow of the scythe and the feathers and skin pre- 
served and mixed with grain from the last sheaf, which 

18 "The Golden Bough," ii. 236, note. 



HARVESTING 247 

was scattered on the field to be tilled. In Scotland the last 
sheaf was sometimes made into the form of a woman, and 
in Sweden the grain of the last sheaf might be baked into 
a loaf in the shape of a little girl, which was divided among 
the household and eaten, while in La Palise, France, a 
man made of dough and hung upon a fir tree was carried 
on the last harvest wagon to the mayor's house, where, at 
the close of the harvest, it was torn to pieces and eaten by 
the people, suggesting, as some are fain to believe, a 
human sacrifice as part of harvest ceremonies sometime 
in the distant past. 

Branches of trees decked with ears of corn were carried 
home with the last wagon from the harvest field by Ger- 
mans and French, and fastened to the farmhouse or barn, 
where they remained for the year, while in ancient Greece 
branches of olive or laurel bound with ribbon and hung 
with fruit were carried in procession at harvest festivals, 
and then fastened over the door, where they remained 
through the year, that the life-giving power of the bough 
might foster the growth of the crops. When the corn is 
ripe, Bechuanas go with axes, and each man brings home a 
branch of the sacred hackthorn, with which they repair the 
cattle yard. At harvest festivals in Zululand a bull is 
killed and the gall drank by king and people; the flesh is 
eaten and burned, and a green calabash broken by the king 
in the presence of the people before anyone is allowed to 
partake of the new fruits. If one tastes of them before, 
he either dies or is killed. 10 

The poet Herrick sings of the Hock-cart, or Harvest- 
Home : 

" Some blesse the Cart ; some kisse the sheaves ; 
Some prank them up with oaken leaves; 
Some cross the fill-horse; some, with great 
Devotion, stroak the home-borne wheat." 
10 "The Golden Bough," i. 191; ii. 328, note. 



248 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

With observations on August, in a seventeenth century- 
almanac, is this stanza : 

" Hoacky is brought 
Home with hallowin, 
Boys with plum-cake 
The Cart following." 20 

Brand notes a custom mentioned in the history of North- 
umberland, occurring on the last day of the reaping. An 
image appareled in finery and crowned with flowers, with 
sickle in hand and a sheaf of corn under its arm is carried 
into the field. It was called the Harvest-Doll, or Corn 
Baby. A figure made of the last ears of the harvest was 
known as the Corn Lady in Scotland. In Kent it was 
called the Ivy Girl. Peruvians made a similar figure, put 
up in rich garments and held in great veneration as the 
Mother of the Maize, which they called the Pirva. 21 
Grimm mentions a custom which prevailed in Sweden and 
elsewhere, of throwing the last bundle of the harvest upon 
the ground for the horses of the wild huntsman, lest as a 
penalty for not doing it their cattle should die. Other 
sayings noted by him are the following : Lay a few of the 
first sheaves from the harvest crosswise in the four corners 
of the barn and the dragon cannot get any of the grain. 
If you burn wheat straw, the crop in the field will turn 
sooty. Make the last sheaf at the harvest big and your 
next crop will be so good that every sheaf can be made as 
large. 22 

It is a Russian custom to carry home the first sheaf of 
the harvest and place it near the holy pictures. It is 
thrashed repeatedly and the grain carefully treasured to be 
mixed with the next year's seed, as a preserver of the future 
crop from all manner of evils. The straw of it is also 

20 Brand's " Antiquities," 301. 

21 Ibid. 302, 303. 

""Teutonic Mythology," 944, 1787, 1792, 1794. 



HARVESTING 249 

a valuable specific for cattle, curing all manner of diseases. 
Ears of corn are knotted together in a ceremony known as 
plaiting the beard of Volos. The knots are supposed to 
make it impossible for witch or wizard afterwards to 
injure the produce of the field. Little patches of grain are 
left unreaped in the field and bread and salt placed 
near them on the ground, an offering to the gods perchance, 
or to appease the malevolent spirits. In Little Russia 
the priest began the harvest. In Kursk and Voroneje a 
patch of rye is left, as they say, in honor of the prophet 
Elijah. In another district, a patch of oats is left, conse- 
crated to St. Nicholas. Prophet and saint have usurped 
the place of Perun, the cloud-compeller, or thunder god, 
who drove the clouds, the cattle of the sky. 23 

Mr. Ellis, who spent many years as a missionary among 
the people of the South Seas, says that religious rites were 
connected with almost every act of their lives. Prayers 
were offered when they tilled the ground and planted their 
gardens. The first fish taken on their shores were carried 
to their altars. The first fruits of their orchards and 
gardens were carried to their altars as offerings, with por- 
tions of their pigs, dogs, and fowls. It was thought that 
death would be inflicted upon the owner or occupant of the 
land if the custom was disregarded. Disease would be 
sent upon the rulers if they offended or neglected the 
deities. Prayers and offerings were necessary to allay their 
wrath. Fruits of whole fields and plantations, and hun- 
dreds of pigs were taken to the altars in great extremities. 
Sometimes men with ropes around their necks, to signify 
their willingness to serve as an offering, if necessary, were 
taken into the temples and presented to the image of the 
god, to atone for offenses, for which they imagined they 
were being punished. 24 

23 " Songs of the Russian People," 253, 254, 
** " Polynesian Researches," i. 268, 269. 



2 5 o MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

In New Guinea they commence digging the yams about 
the end of April, and in the following month rhe great 
annual yam-festival takes place, which often lasts for a 
week or ten days, during which all business is suspended, 
the time being given up to feasting, music, and dancing. 
The girls are dressed in new grass-petticoats, and gar- 
landed with flowers, and the men paint their faces in gor- 
geous style. Pigs are slaughtered in great numbers, which 
are contributed together with cartloads of yams, the pigs 
being cut up and distributed by lot, each man receiving a 
portion corresponding to a piece of twine which he has 
drawn. 25 

When the Malay is ready to begin reaping his rice he 
must first get permission of the Pawang, who is the inter- 
mediary between men and spirits; he must burn benzoin in 
the field, and must take the rice-soul out of his fields; 
to do this, he chooses a spot where the rice is best, where 
the bunch of stalks is big and there are seven joints to the 
stalk. He clips seven, a sacred number, of stems for 
the soul of the rice. He clips another handful, to be the 
mother-seed for the following year. The rice-soul is 
wrapped in a white cloth, tied with a cord of bark, and 
made into the image of a little child in swaddling clothes, 
and put in a small basket. The mother god is put in 
another basket and both are fumigated with benzoin and 
taken home. He then waits three days and begins the 
cutting of the rice. Every day when the reapers com- 
mence their work they repeat this charm : 

" A swallow has fallen, striking the ground, 
Striking the ground in the middle of our house-yard; 
But ye, O shadows and spectral reapers, 
See that ye mingle not with us." 

20 " Two Years among the Savages of New Guinea," W. D. Pitcairn, 66. 



HARVESTING 251 

When reaping they cover their heads and face the sun, so 
as to prevent their shadows from falling upon the rice in 
the basket at their sides. Their shadows must not fall 
upon the rice during the reaping, neither must their hair 
be cut. A light must be placed at the head of the rice- 
child's bed and must not be allowed to go out at night. 
Neither must the fire on their hearths during the reaping 
be suffered to go out. They perform certain ceremonies 
to make the husked rice white and smooth, and others will 
make it rougher, if desired. If they wish to make the 
whole field of rice break into waves, they stand up and 
clap their hands, and they push each hand up the sleeve 
of the opposite arm and repeat a charm, to make the 
grains swell and prevent them from shrinking or getting 
empty. A lump of earth is dug with the great toe of the 
left foot and inserted in the midst of each clump of grain 
which has been tied up for the rice-child, and they repeat : 

" Peace be with you, Prophet 'Tap, in whose charge is the earth, 
Confirm this my child. 
Do it no harm or scathe, 
But remove it far from demons and devils." 

After taking home the rice-soul, the sheaf which is left 
standing is called the mother of the rice-soul and treated 
as a newly made mother, by being fed with prepared salad, 
and for three successive days young shoots of trees pounded 
together are scattered broadcast. Sometimes the women 
reap, naked from the waist up, a magical method of mak- 
ing the rice husks thinner. They repeat charms before 
leaving the house, and again before depositing their 
baskets on the ground. The last sheaf is reaped by the 
owner's wife, who thrashes it out and mixes it with the 
rice-soul. 2G 

20 " Malay Magic," W. W. Skeat, 225-249. 



252 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

An annual harvest festival is observed in Siam, the cere- 
monies of which are believed to be of Brahmanical origin. 
It takes place inside the city walls, on a lawn near a large 
church, and is generally attended by the people, the 
thoroughfares being blocked by them and their carriages 
and 'rickshaws, and bands and processions with decorated 
buffaloes and carts. Offerings of fruit and flowers and 
bundles of rice express their gratitude for the gift of the 
harvest. There are swinging games and prizes. After 
the Cambodians have gathered and stored the paddy 
(rice) in their granaries they send for the achars, the relig- 
ious literati, who come and read prayers and invocations 
over the garnered crop. It is placed under the protection 
of a certain magical stone, which they hold in great rev- 
erence. It is an Iban custom in Borneo for the women, at 
their harvest festivals, to take down the old skulls and 
carry them with the new ones, in their dances. No one 
will venture to cut the paddy in Java before a priest has 
made an offering. The feast of Ny-ipaan, the gathering 
of first fruits among the natives of Sarawak, lasts two 
days; there is music and dancing; a fowl is killed; no one 
must cut his paddy till this is over. A second feast is held 
at mid-harvest, and a third at the close, when the crop is 
stored. Eight days are given up to the last one, during 
which no stranger must be allowed to enter the village. 
A feature of the festival is the ceremonial capturing of 
the soul of the paddy, which is mixed with the seed for the 
next year. Pigs and fowls are sacrificed. If during the 
harvest a basket of paddy is upset, that farm must rest for 
a day and a fowl be killed, or the paddy will rot. If a tree 
fall across the path, a fowl must be killed, and the path 
remain unused for a day, to ward off portending evil. 

On the Gold Coast a harvest festival is held in Septem- 
ber when the yam crop is ripe. It lasts a fortnight, and 



HARVESTING 253 

no new yams must be eaten by the people till its close. A 
criminal is sacrificed on the fifth day of the festival and 
sent as a messenger to the deceased kings. On this day the 
king eats of the new yams, and he eats again the day before 
the close of the ceremony. 

When the sugar cane is cut in India there are strictly 
observed ceremonies. Figures of Vishnu and his wife are 
drawn with butter and the excrement of cows. Offerings 
are made, and all wait for the official announcement of 
the Brahman who declares when the fortunate moment has 
arrived for beginning the work. 

The Santals have a harvest home in December, when 
the head man of the village entertains the people. Cattle 
are anointed with oil and daubed with vermilion, and each 
animal is given rice beer. Mr. Crooke says that in tread- 
ing out the grain, the rule everywhere is that the cattle 
move with the course of the sun. 27 

Mr. Lawrence Gomme has pointed out, in describing the 
Chippenham village community in England, that, as late 
as 1835, it appears from the Commissioner's report, 
the land called " West Mead " was laid down in meadow, 
and the grass divided among the bailiff, twelve burgesses, 
and ninety-seven first freemen, but that no one was allowed 
to enter the mead- until the baliff had cut his acre, after 
which anyone was at liberty to cut his portion. 28 

In concluding this sketch of harvest customs, we may 
note specifically the universality of these formal ceremo- 
nies; the great similarity of them among peoples of like 

27 "The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe," Ernest Young, 213; Popular 
Science Monthly, xliv. 780; "Home Life of Borneo Head-Hunters," Fur- 
ness, 65 ; " History of Mankind," F. Ratzel, i. 473 ; " Natives of Sarawak 
and British North Borneo," Henry Ling Roth, i. 401, 414; "The Tshi- 
Speaking Peoples," A. B. Ellis, 230; "Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern 
India," W. Crooke, 379, 383. 

28 " Village Communities," 179. 



254 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

attainments ; that they have been adapted to all forms of 
religious beliefs, and higher ethical ideas have marked the 
abandonment of their repulsive features; that it is prob- 
able that the harvest, home of cultured humanity finds its 
origin in the crude magical formulas by which less civilized 
man thought to defend himself from the hostile influences 
around him, and regulate and compel the harvest. 



CHAPTER XV 

FRUIT-GROWING 

" We nowhere art do so triumphant see, 
As when it grafts or buds the tree. 

It does, like grace, the fallen tree restore 
To its blest state of Paradise before. 

He does the savage hawthorn teach 

To bear the medlar and the pear; 

He bids the rustic plum to rear 

A noble trunk, and be a peach. 

Even Daphne's coyness he does mock, 

And weds the cherry to her stock, 

Though she refused Apollo's suit, 

Even she, that chaste and virgin tree, 

Now wonders at herself to see 

That she's a mother made, and blushes in her fruit." * 

There is a legend of the patriarchal hero of the deluge, 
which credits him with the planting of the first vineyard, 
though not without the assistance of the Evil One. As 
the story is, Noah was laboring to break the hard sod, 
when the Devil appeared to him and made inquiry as to 
his intentions. On being informed that he was planting 
the grape, Satan offered his services, which were accepted. 
He then procured a lamb and slaughtered it, pouring its 
blood upon the clods of earth and assuring the patri- 
arch that the effect of this would be to make those drink- 
ing the juice from the fruit of the vine " soft-spirited and 
gentle as a lamb." Satan then caught a lion, slew it, and 

1 Cowley's " Garden." 

255 



256 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

poured its blood upon the soil. "Thence shall it come," 
said he, " that those who taste the juice of the grape shall 
be strong and courageous *as the lion." He then slew a 
pig, pouring its blood upon the earth, too, that those who 
drank of the wine to excess might be like the swine, filthy, 
degraded and bestial. 

A kindred Mussulman tradition of the vine makes 'Ham, 
when it was planted, moisten the ground with the blood of 
a peacock, and when the leaves came, they were sprinkled 
with the blood of an ape, but the grown grapes were 
drenched with the blood of a lion, and again, when ripened, 
with the blood of a swine. In this way it came about that 
the first glass makes a man assume the gayety of a pea- 
cock; when it more affects his brain, he leaps and gambols 
like an ape; when drunken he rages like a lion furiously, 
and when the fury is past, like the beastly swine, he grovels 
in the dust in his sleepy stupor. 2 

In this legend of the planting of the vine are to be 
traced some of the curious beliefs, to which attention has 
already been called, which are common among the less 
civilized, and survive, to some extent, in the customs of 
more enlightened races. The hostile spirits of the earth 
are appeased with a sacrificial offering. The life of some- 
thing, or its equivalent, the blood, is given to furnish the 
new life of the plant. The peculiar characteristics of the 
animal are transferred to the living plant and to its fruit, 
and manifest themselves in their effects upon the persons 
who consume them, suggesting apparently, in a modified 
form, the doctrine of transmigration. A kindred theory 
impels the savage to eat his brave enemy so that he may 
acquire the courage of his vanquished foe, and is the basis 
of the belief that the parts of animals consumed by him 
give strength and vigor to corresponding parts in man. 

3 " Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets," S. Baring-Gould, chap. xvi. 



FRUIT-GROWING 257 

And lastly we note in the legend of the vine the theolo- 
gian's shaping hand, in the interpretation by which the per- 
version of the use of its fruit is accounted for by making 
the Devil accessory to the planting of it. 

In the legendary lore of fruit culture great influence has 
always been attributed to saints and devils, as many old 
sayings attest. When it rains on St. Swithin's Day the 
Saint is said to be christening the apples. Apples used to 
be blessed by the priest on St. James' Day, and in some old 
church manuals there is a special form for the blessing. 
On Innocents' Day the trees used to be beaten to promote 
their fertility. In the parish of Walsingham, in Surrey, 
boys went around to the orchards in the parish in the 
spring and whipped the apple trees. St. Urban's image 
was flung into the brook or mud by the Franconians when 
a failure of the wine crop was threatened. St. Dunstan is 
held in evil repute, and it is said he seldom lets the month 
of May pass without a blight, though St. Barnaby more 
kindly gives fair weather when the trees are in bud. The 
legend is that St. Dunstan, in his unregenerate days, was 
connected with a brewery, and in the interest of his trade in 
malted goods looked askance upon a promising apple crop. 
Indeed, it is affirmed that Beelzebub once approached the 
Saint, offering on certain conditions to blight all the apple 
trees in the country around, so that there should be no 
cider made, and beer would be more than ever in demand. 
Whether the deal was consummated or not, it is evident the 
Saint has never quite overcome the evil reputation acquired 
by the association. 

Another perilous period is Frankum's Night, so called, 
it is said, in memory of one Frankum, who, some time or 
other, practiced incantations and magical spells so suc- 
cessfully as to excite the jealousy of the witches, and for 
revenge, on that night, they sprinkle blight and mildew, 



258 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

and other uncanny things, upon the trees whose young 
fruit is beginning to redden. 

As we have seen, the plan is not unknown in husbandry, 
of conciliating the evil ones by allotting to them a portion 
of the field for their own. This method is exemplified in 
the description, as we have read, 3 of the garden of one 
Tony Partiger, who thought his garden was bewitched 
because the tulips he bought for double turned out single, 
" the candytuft came out chickweed, the lobelia groundsel, 
and sowthistles and fool's parsley grew where finest lawn 
grass was promised." Accordingly, both to conciliate and 
terrify them, he surrounded his fruit garden with such 
things as witches cannot bear and made another garden 
of such things as they most delight in. The former he 
shaped as a pentangle with a poplar tree at one point of 
it, and at each of the others set an elder, a hazel, an ash 
and a mountain ash, all potent against evil spirits. At the 
foot of one tree he set bracken ; of another, St. Johnswort ; 
of the third, vervain; of the fourth, foxglove; and against 
the poplar he trained black briony. White lilies and 
sweetbriar, hateful to Satan, guarded the center, and upon 
the poplar he nailed with cross-headed nails a board with 
the prayer upon it : 

" From witches and wizards and long-tailed buzzards, 
And creeping things that run in hedge bottoms, 
Good Lady, deliver us." 

And then in a corner of the other garden he made a little 
pool for newts and frogs, the playthings of witches, and 
over it hung black alders. In the garden were nightshade 
and hellebore and henbane and betony and the plant that 
bore " bloody men's fingers," and mallow that softens 
men's bones and makes them cripples, and the plantain that 

3 Phil Robinson, in Contemporary Rc-viriv, 1893. 



FRUIT-GROWING 259 

causes the black sweat. Then he threw into the garden 
some dead shrews and bats, and set some wands of bay 
ready for use, against the alders, and some old broom- 
sticks for witches to ride. 

By the biblical and other legends of the temptation and 
fall of man the association of fruit with evil has been for- 
ever enshrined in the world's folk-lore. Barrenness and 
decay follow the supremacy of evil, and are thwarted only 
by the intercession of some superior celestial power. Pau- 
sanias says that fruits of autumn laid at the feet of the 
image of Demeter in a certain sanctuary remained fresh 
throughout the year. The fruit of apple trees was 
secured against rot and caterpillars, according to Pliny, 
by touching the tops of the trees with the gall of a green 
lizard, or by a woman going around each tree barefooted 
and ungirt while in her monthly courses. Fruit was pro- 
tected from hail by a certain charm, the words of which the 
Roman philosopher dared not venture to transcribe. Yet 
the cherry tree which was climbed by a menstruous woman 
died and the blasted fruit fell from the tree, and buds 
and seedlings and vines withered and died at her touch, 
as the barren fig tree withered at the voice of the Holy 
One. 4 

Dante describes the tree which he and the master met 
midway in Purgatory, whose apples were " sweet and 
grateful to the smell," though it tapered downward 
instead of upward, from bough to bough, in order, it was 
said, that no man might climb it. 5 

" Each did learned notions give," 

Cowley says of the Tree of Knowledge, which in the fair 

4 Frazer's " Pausanias," ix. 19, 5; "Natural History," vii. 13; xvii. 47; 
" Roman Festivals," 24, 29. 
B Canto xxii. 122. 






2 6o MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

garden grew, upon which the Phoenix Truth rested and 
" built his perfumed nest." The apples were demonstra- 
tive, and 

" So clear their color and divine, 
The very shade they cast did other lights outshine." 

The beneficent light of the full moon perfected the ripen- 
ing fruit, and therefore, Endymion said, 

" No apples would I gather from the tree, 
Till thou hadst cooled their cheeks deliciously." 

Some of the older English poets sing of enchanted vines 
and trees which proffered their fruits to the hands and lips 
of those who approached them. Andrew Marvell, in 
" The Garden," says: 

" The luscious clusters of a vine 
Upon my mouth do crush their wine; 
The nectarine and curious peach 
Into my hands themselves do reach." 

The verse of Marvell is but an echo of the still earlier 
lines of Spencer: 

1 Arched overhead with an embracing vine, 
Whose bunches hanging down seem to entice 
All passers-by to taste their luscious wine, 
And did themselves into their hands incline, 
As freely offering to be gathered." ° 

Virgil sings of the goodly fruit of the apple tree growing 
on the barren plains, of the beech whitened with the chest- 
nut's pale blossoms, of the pear grafted upon the moun- 
tain ash, and of the acorns found underneath the elms, but 
the philosopher says that religious scruples forbade too 
indiscriminate grafting. It was not permitted to graft 

""Faerie Queene," ii. canto xii. 54. 



FRUIT-GROWING 261 

upon the thorn. There was no easy mode of expiating 
the sin and avoiding the disastrous effects of lightning 
which visited it afterwards, for as many as were the dif- 
ferent kinds of trees grafted upon the thorn, so many were 
the thunderbolts hurled in a single flash against that spot. 
When the Romans held their festival to Vulcanus, the god 
of fire, on the 23d of August, it was a period of danger 
to the fig trees, for the fruit fell off if it then thundered. 
Libations of all new wine were made by the Romans to 
Jupiter. That he claimed the festival of the Vinalia as 
his own we have on the authority of Ovid. The priest of 
Jupiter plucked the first grapes. Venus, deity of gardens 
and vineyards, is associated with the ceremonies, and much 
wine was poured out in her temples on the feast days. 
Wine growers were warned that the new wine must not be 
brought into the city until the Vinalia had been proclaimed. 
The object of the festival purported to be to secure the 
vintage from malignant 7 influences, and to appease the 
storms, which might ruin the vines. 

Poets have conceived of orchards whose trees were 
freighted with ghastly fruitage. In the Vision of Frate 
Alberico there were found valleys in " St. Patrick's Purga- 
tory," the branches of whose trees " were long spikes, on 
which hung women transfixed through their breasts, while 
venomous serpents were sucking them; these were women 
who had refused pity to orphans." 8 Oscilla were hung 
on trees at the Paganalia and lat the great Latin Festival 
under the supervision of the Roman state, as a means of 
avoiding evil influences. Liber was an ancient Italian 
deity, who protected the vine and made the fields fertile, 
and in later times was identified with the Greek Bacchus or 

7 " Georgics," book ii. ; "Natural History," xv. 17; xvii. 47; "Fasti," iv. 
900 ; Fowler's " Roman Festivals," 87. 

8 Longfellow's " Dante," 234 ; " St. Patrick's Purgatory," Thomas Wright, 
119. 



262 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

Dionysus, in whose honor was the festival of the Liberalia, 
when, as Virgil says, the farmers of Ansonia in uncouth 
verse and with unchecked laughter celebrated the feast of 
Bacchus, putting on the hideous vizards of hollow bark and 
hanging on the tall pines tiny waving masks. On this day, 
the 17th of March, old women priestesses sat in the streets, 
crowned with ivy, pleasing to the god, and sold cakes of 
oil and honey, and sacrificed on their portable altars for 
the benefit of the buyers. Hymns of praise were sung to 
Bacchus. The sacrificial goat was slain and the entrails 
roasted on spits of hazel wood. By virtue of these cere- 
monies, according to the poet, the vineyards bloomed with 
large increase and all the lands prospered wheresoever the 
god bore round his comely face. 9 It is immaterial how 
much living faith the people really had, that these 
rites, as the poet says, increased the vintage. The con- 
tinuance of them and the permanent interest in them 
suggests, at least, their importance to them, at some earlier 
period. What other features may have been connected 
with them in that older time is unknown. In a peculiar 
sacrifice of the Carthaginians it is known that human 
beings, at Hierapolis, were suspended alive from trees and 
the trees were set on fire. The " Annals of Tacitus " re- 
late that when Cascina came upon the scene of the over- 
throw of Varus, he found the evidences of their sacrifices, 
and human heads were fastened to the trunks of trees. 
The Yakuts hang heads of oxen and horses upon trees in 
their spring sacrifices. Grimm mentions a White Sunday 
ceremony, when a fir tree was set in a marked-off spot in 
the pasture and its branches covered with bones and its top 
adorned with a horse's skull. 10 

""Roman Festivals," 96, 296; "Fasti," iii. 767; " Georgics," ii. 389. 
""Religion of the Semites," 351, note; "Annals of Tacitus," i. 61; 
" Primitive Culture," ii. 224 ; " Teutonic Mythology," 787, note. 



FRUIT-GROWING 263 

While it is most probable that our Christmas trees 
and evergreens sprang from the rites of the Roman festi- 
vals, we may not infer that similar customs of decking 
trees and loading them with offerings, were unknown to 
other and older nations. They all point back to the period 
of culture when trees were worshiped as deities, or feared 
as demons, whom, in either case, it was necessary to 
appease by offerings and sacrifices. Libations and sacri- 
fices were offered to the trees by the Phoenicians and 
Canaanites. In Arabia the date palm was adored at an 
annual feast and hung with fine clothes and women's orna- 
ments. Ostrich eggs and other gifts were hung upon 
their branches among which the angels or jinns were sup- 
posed, to be dancing and singing. 11 Decorating trees with 
women's ornaments and belongings, to impart their fertil- 
ity to it, is not uncommon. In Syria when the tree does 
not bear the gardener has a pregnant woman fasten a stone 
among its branches, by this means transferring her fertil- 
ity to the tree, but, it is said, with the risk of miscarriage 
to herself. To load a tree with stones is an imitative 
charm, which is supposed to fill the tree with fruit; to put 
a stone in the tree on Christmas Eve has a similar effect. 
In Bohemia the first apple of a tree is plucked and eaten by 
a woman who has borne many children, to impart fertiliy 
to the tree and secure a plentiful crop the ensuing year. 
The Galelareese say the tree is male if it fails to bear, and 
they put on it a woman's petticoat. On Christmas Eve 
German peasants used to tie the fruit trees together with 
straw ropes to make them bear fruit, saying that the trees 
were thus married. Shrubs and trees were formally mar- 
ried to each other in India, or to idols, and a marriage cere- 
mony was performed in honor of a newly planted orchard. 
In the Moluccas clove trees in blossom are treated with 

""Religion of the Semites," 169. 



264 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

great care, like pregnant women. No noise must be made 
near them. No light or fire must be carried past them at 
night and no one must approach them with his hat on. 
Unless these regulations are observed the tree will be 
frightened and yield no fruit, or else will drop its fruit 
before it is perfected. Pasteboard effigies of the fruit of 
the size desired are made in Ceylon, and placed in the trees, 
or near them, 12 with a faith in magic not unlike that of the 
Eskimo in the far away Arctic regions, who makes rough 
chipped images of whales and wears them as amulets to 
bring him plenty of them. 

Among the things which Grimm has noted is the belief 
that if the first fruit of a tree was stolen, the tree would 
not bear again for seven years ; and that no bird would ever 
touch the fruit of a man who had never worked on Sun- 
day. Witches were charged with boiling apple blossoms 
to spoil the fruit, and they made mice from fallen pears, 
but it was said, they had no tails. 13 

Halliwell embalmed in rhyme a custom which has been 
noted of beating the trees to make them yield better : 

" A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut tree, 
The more you whip them, the better they be." 14 

Coaxing, threatening, and frightening were resorted to 
that the evil powers that hindered the trees from bearing 
might be overcome. Ancestral gods preside over the 
growth of fruits in the Papuan Island of Tanna. First 
fruits were offered to them, and the chief acting as high 
priest prayed: " Compassionate father, here is some food 
for you, eat it; be kind to us on account of it." The semi- 

12 "The Golden Bough," i. 176; " Vedic India," 389; John Murdoch, in 
Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 435. 
""Teutonic Mythology," 1627, 1812, 1814. 
14 Quoted from " English Folk-Lore," by Thistleton Dyer. 



FRUIT-GROWING 265 

wild fruit tree known as the Durian frequently reaches a 
height of eighty or ninety feet before the branches 
are met with. It is planted in groves. Mr. Skeat describes 
a ceremony for making it productive. On a specially 
selected day the people of the village assemble at the 
grove. The most barren of the trees is chosen, and one of 
the Pawangs with a hatchet strikes several blows upon its 
trunk, saying: 

"Will you now bear fruit or not? 
If you do not I shall fell you." 

Then the tree was supposed to make answer (through the 
mouth of a man who had been stationed in a mangosteen 
tree hard by) , 

"Yes, I will now bear fruit; 
I beg you not to fell me." w 

South Slavonian peasants and Bulgarians have a similar 
custom. A peasant on Christmas Eve swings an ax 
threateningly against the tree, while another standing by 
intercedes for the tree, imploring him not to cut it down. 
Thrice the ax is swung and the blow arrested, when it is 
thought the tree has been duly impressed and will bear 
another year. A kindred rite for the same purpose takes 
place on Good Friday in Armenia. 16 In Lesbos unfruit- 
ful orange and lemon trees are constrained to bear by set- 
ting a looking-glass before them and with an ax in hand 
crying aloud that the tree will be cut unless it gives fruit. 
In parts of France, on the first Sunday in Lent, people used 
to run about the fields and roads with lighted torches, 
warning the fruit trees that if they did not bear fruit they 
would be cut down and cast into the fire. Elsewhere, at 

""Primitive Culture," ii. 364; "Malay Magic," 198. 
""The Golden Bough," i. 175; iii. 241. 



266 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

sunset, torches were waved around the trees and women 
fastened around them bands of straw to make them 
fruitful. 

Ceremonies at Christmas and Epiphany in connection 
with the fruit trees, apparently of close kinship to the old 
Roman festivals of the vine, continued in Europe almost 
to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Brand 17 
quotes from the Gentlemen's Magazine in 1791, a descrip- 
tion of an observance in Southhams of Devonshire, on the 
Eve of Epiphany. The farmer and his workmen go to 
the orchard carrying a large pitcher of cider, and encir- 
cling one of the best bearing trees, drink three times this 
toast: 

" Here's to thee, old apple tree, 
Whence thou may'st bud and whence thou may'st blow! 
And whence thou may'st bear apples enow ! 
Hats full! Caps full! 
And my pockets full, too ! Huzza ! " 

Another variation of the custom was to go into the orchard 
after supper with a panful of cider and roast apples, and 
under the most fruitful trees drink the toast : 

" Health to thee, good apple tree, 
Well to bear, pocket-fulls, hat-fulls, 
Peck-fulls, bushel-bag-fulls ! " 

Herrick sings of Christmas duties: 

" Wassaile the trees, that they may beare 
You many a plum, and many a peare; 
For more or less fruits they will bring, 
As you do give them wassailing." 

In some parts of Norfolk libations of spiced ale used to be 
sprinkled on orchards and meadows on Christmas Eve. 

""Antiquities," 16. 



FRUIT-GROWING 267 

In the neighborhood of New Forest in Hampshire they 
wassailed the trees on Christmas Eve, and sang : 

" Apples and pears with right good corn, 
Come in plenty to every one; 
Eat and drink good cake and hot ale, 
Give earth to drink and she'll not fail." u 

During the eight days preceding Christmas, in Normandy, 
they placed bundles of hay under the fruit trees and the 
children set fire to them while crying : 

" Taupes, cherilles et mulots 
Sortez, sortez de mon clos; 
Ou, je vous brule la barbe et les os; 
Arbres, arbrisseaux 
Donnez moi des pommes a mirlot." 

"Dyer's "British Popular Customs," 448. 



CHAPTER XVI 

BEES 

" At evening, while his wife put on her look 
Of love's endurance, from its niche he took 
The written pages of his ponderous book, 
And read, in half the languages of man, 
His ' Rusca Apium,' which with bees began, 
And through the gamut of creation ran." 1 

The origin of bees was a great mystery to ancient phil- 
osophers. The subject is often referred to in the works 
which have come down to us. The science of ancient 
Greece accepted it as a fact that the dead body of a bull 
produced bees in the process of natural decay, and that of 
a horse wasps. It was endorsed by Latin writers, and 
hundreds of years later it was still credited by the author 
of the " Speculum Mundi," who added to it that an ass 
bred bumblebees, a mule hornets, and a calf, honeybees. 
Ben Jonson also seems to have endorsed the theory from 
the words put into the mouth of his Alchemist, who uses it 
as an argument to prove the reasonableness of his magic: 

" Beside, who doth not see in daily practice 
Art can beget bees, hornets, beetles, wasps, 
Out of the carcasses and dung of creatures; 
Yea, scorpions of an herb, being rightly placed?" 

Rev. Increase Mather thought that demons could make 
insects, and it was also held that some kind of wasps could 

1 Whittier's " Pennsylvania Pilgrim." 

268 



BEES 269 

be made out of decayed fruit. 2 Melanchthon regarded the 
production of bees from dead oxen as a divine provision. 
Movertus in 1634 declared that rustic experience con- 
firmed the opinion of famous men that bees were bred from 
the putrefaction of bulls, oxen, cows, and calves, kings 
and leaders among them being bred from the brain, and 
spinal marrow, and common bees from the flesh. 

Pliny, the elder, said that if a swarm of bees were 
entirely lost they might be replaced by the aid of the belly 
of an ox newly killed and covered over with dung, nature 
herself effecting the change. Virgil said if a bee master 
had lost his whole stock of bees at once and had no source 
whence he might derive a new supply, they might be pro- 
duced, by the famed discovery of the Arcadian master, out 
of the corrupted gore of slaughtered oxen. The process 
he describes was to seek out a young bullock " on whose 
brow are beginning to curl the horns of his second year," 
and, stopping its nostrils and mouth, kill it and crush its 
body without breaking the skin and strew about it broken 
boughs, thyme, and fresh-plucked cassia flowers. This 
must be done before the meadows are crimsoned with new- 
born hues, and before the swallow hangs his nest in the 
eaves. The moisture growing warm in the softened bones 
begins to ferment, and then, 

" Behold a prodigy, for from within 
The broken bowels and the bloated skin, 
A buzzing sound of bees the ear alarms; 
Straight issuing through the sides assembling swarms. 
Dark as a cloud they make a wheeling flight, 
Then on a neighboring tree descending light. 
Like a cluster of black grapes they show, 
And make a large dependance from the bough." s 

2 " Natural History Lore and Legend," 311; "The Alchemist," ii. i; 
" The Transit of Civilization," Edward Eggleston, io, 41. 
8 " Georgics," iv. Dryden. 



2 7 o MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

The production of bees in this manner at first is attributed 
to Aristaeus, who, when he had lost his bees, appealed in 
his despair to his mother, the river-nymph, Cyrene, who 
sent her son to Proteus, the old prophet of the sea, for 
counsel, instructing him how to proceed to induce the 
prophet to advise him. Proteus traversed the mighty 
main in a car drawn by fishes and a team of two-footed 
steeds. He tended the monstrous herds and mis-shapen 
sea-calves of Neptune beneath the floods. Aristseus was 
instructed how to overcome by force and bind the shepherd 
of Neptune. He found him in a cavern scooped from the 
mountain side, counting his sea-calves, but the wily Proteus 
transformed himself first into fire, then into dread beasts, 
and then into a river, in his efforts to escape, and finally 
sank in the depths of the flood; but Cyrene, again coming 
to the protection of her son, gives him the necessary 
instruction for the proper sacrifices to obtain a new supply 
of swarms. 

The Hebrew story 4 of the swarm of bees which Sam- 
son found in the carcass of the, lion which he killed in the 
vineyard of Timnath, as given in the biblical records, does 
not expressly say that the bees were generated there, yet 
the circumstance as related leads to the conclusion that in 
the thought of the relator, according to the belief prev- 
alent among other ancient peoples, the bees originated in 
the carcass of the slain animal. 

Bees generated in this way were known to the Greeks 
as bougonia. The final extinction of the delusion among 
civilized nations is ascribed by a modern scientist 5 to two 
causes: Among scientific men, to the disbelief in sponta- 
neous generation, and the recognition of the principle, 

'Judges xiv. 

° " The So-called Bugonia of the Ancients, and its relation to Eristalic 
Tenax, a Two-Winged Insect," by C. R. Osten Sacken, 1893. 



BEES 271 

omne vivum ex ova; and among the more ignorant, to the 
introduction of a sanitary policy which prevents the 
exposure of carcasses. 

It remains to say that modern science has made plain the 
real foundation or origin of this strange and persistent 
belief, which was owing to the fact that a very common 
fly (scientifically Eristalio Tenax) known to nearly all 
parts of the Old World and in North America since 1875, 
lays its eggs upon carcasses, in which the larvae develop 
and finally change into a swarm of flies, which, in their 
shape, hairy clothing, and color, look exactly like bees, 
though belonging to a totally different order of insects. 

May we ascribe to this source also the origin of a legend 
told of Job, 6 that there were no honeybees on the earth 
till after the patriarch was healed of his sores by bathing 
in the water of the sacred spring, and then the flies which 
had tormented his sores were turned into honeybees? 

Roman legend accredited the discovery of honey to 
Bacchus. While on a journey, attended by his Satyrs, the 
winged insects, till then unknown, flocked together at the 
tinkling of the cymbals of his attendants and were collected 
by the god and shut in a hollow tree. When Silenus, 
father of the Satyrs, while seeking honey surreptitiously, 
was overcome by the wounds inflicted by the bees, Bacchus 
himself taught them how to cure themselves by applying 
mud to the wounds. Again, it was said, honey was found 
on the leaves of the trees until the reign of Jupiter began, 
when, to encourage the people to activity in agricultural 
pursuits, he shook the honey off the trees. Associated 
with the mystery of their origin was the belief that they 
had not the power of reproduction as other animals. Vir- 
gil says: "They never yield themselves to sexual love, 
nor unnerve their bodies to the languor of passion, or bring 

* " Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets," Baring-Gould. 



272 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

forth their offspring by the pangs of birth; but by them- 
selves, with their mouths they gather their children from 
leaves and sweet plants." 7 Maurice Maeterlinck, how- 
ever, has described in his classic story of " The Life of the 
Bee," the tragic nuptials of the queen in "the infinite radi- 
ant circles " of the sky and " the murderous return of the 
bride." Though none have " profaned the secret of the 
queen-bee's wedding," science has patiently unraveled 
the mysteries of her impregnation, and the reproduction of 
the bee, which among the chroniclers of the hoary tradi- 
tions and legends of the hive, was so long catalogued with 
the miraculous. We now know that the long flight into the 
ethereal regions is essential to the consummation of the act 
of procreation, because of the peculiar physical formation 
of the male. " Prodigious nuptials these," says the 
" Epic " of Maeterlinck, " the most fairylike that can be 
conceived, azure and tragic, raised, high above life by the 
impetus of desire; imperishable and terrible, unique and 
bewildering, solitary and infinite." 8 

It is evident that much interest was taken in bee culture 
by the Greeks and Romans, from the numerous references 
to the subject in the works of their classic authors. Hymet- 
tus was celebrated for its honey, but, according to Pau- 
sanias, it was second to the territory of the Alazones, 
where the bees were so tame that they lived among the 
people unconfined in hives, seeking their food and storing 
their honey without restraint, and making honey withal so 
firm and compact that it could not be separated from the 
comb. 9 This author says that the statues of Priapus 
were especially honored by those who kept swarms of bees, 
presumably from the belief that it would make them more 

7 " Georgics," iv. 197, Lonsdale and Lee. 
8 Translation of Alfred Sutro, p. 320. 
s Book i. 32. 



BEES 273 

prolific. He relates a legend of Pindar, to the effect that 
it was owing to bees that he received his first inspiration 
and began to write poetry. While on his way to Thespiae 
in the middle of a hot day he lay down by the roadside for 
rest and sleep and bees lighting upon him made honey 
upon his lips. There are traditions among the people of 
Delphi of a temple to Apollo which was built of the wax 
and wings of bees. Bees which swarmed and built a home 
near the entrance of the tomb of the great healer, Hip- 
pocrates, are said to have made honey from flowers of the 
Larissan fields, which were specially efficacious in the treat- 
ment of certain physical ailments. It is told that when 
there had been no rain for years the Boeotians dispatched 
envoys to Delphi, to seek for relief, who were sent by the 
priestesses to Trophonius at Lebadea, to obtain from him 
the desired information which would enable them to bring 
the drought to an end. Failing to 'find the oracle in 
Labadea, by the advice of Saon, the oldest of the mes- 
sengers, they followed a swarm of bees into a hole in the 
earth and so discovered the oracle which they were seek- 
ing, and learned from Trophonius the ritual and observ- 
ances ever afterwards successfully used to bring rain when 
they suffered from lack of it. 10 

Ovid says one of the offerings to Janus at the beginning 
of the year was honey in a snow-white jar. Pliny as well 
as Virgil refers to the action of the bees in balancing or 
poising themselves in the air, in a gale, by carrying little 
stones. From Pliny we learn that a swarm of bees would 
die at once if looked upon by a menstruous woman, and 
whatever may be said of the old gull's scientific attain- 
ments it cannot be denied that he is a most faithful and 
interesting chronicler of the beliefs of his age. The so- 
called " honey-dew " was one of the mysteries of his 

10 Frazer's " Pausanias," ix. 40. 



274 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

time, and for many hundred years afterwards. Virgil 
referred to aerial honey as a celestial gift. In " Oberon's 
Palace," the sixteenth century English poet Herrick men- 
tions " those mites of candied dew in moony nights." 
Pliny expressed the opinion that it was engendered from 
the air mostly at the rising of the constellations, and 
especially when Sirius is shining, but never before the 
rising of the Vergillae, and then just before daybreak. 
He thought it uncertain whether it was the sweet of the 
heavens, or a saliva emanating from the stars, or a juice 
exuded from the air while purifying itself. He regretted 
that it was not as pure after its downward descent as at its 
beginning. It was popularly supposed to possess remark- 
able medicinal qualities. Gilbert White explained it in 
this way: " In hot weather the effluvia of flowers in fields 
and meadows and gardens are drawn up in the day by a 
brisk evaporation, and then in the night fall down again 
with the dews with which they are entangled . . . 
that this clammy substance is of the vegetable kind we may 
learn from bees, to whom it is very grateful ; and we may be 
assured that it falls in the night, because it is always seen 
first in warm still mornings." 11 But alas, remorseless 
science has assigned an earthly origin to this poetical sweet 
of the heavens, and we know that it is but a viscid, sac- 
charine exudation of the plants and trees themselves, which 
is found on the leaves and stems in warm, dry weather, 
and that the flow is caused by the rupture of the tissues 
from being punctured by insects, who, by their peculiar 
physical structure, are enabled to appropriate the sweet, 
transparent fluid. 12 

11 " Georgics," iv. i; "Natural History," xi. 12; "Natural History of 
Selborne," Letter lxiv. to Dairies Barrington. 

12 " Insect Life," John Henry Comstock, 177; Chambers' Encyclopedia, 
" Aphides." 



BEES 275 

In the careful instructions to beekeepers that Virgil has 
embalmed in verse, he advises that no yew tree should be 
suffered near the home of the bees, but that a palm or great 
wild olive may canopy the porch, that in the spring when 
the young swarm is about to break forth, a tree in full view 
may charm them to stay within its hospitable bower. A 
tiny stream running through the grass should be near the 
colony; willow boughs should be thrown across it, and 
stones, forming a succession of bridges for the bees to settle 
upon and throw out their wings in the summer sun. 
The hive must not be placed where there is an echo near 
by, which might frighten them. Neither must red crabs 
be roasted in a fire near to the bees. When young bees are 
unprisoned and soar away seeking their new home, savory 
herbs are to be scattered, and bruised leaves of balm, 
and the cymbals of the mother of the gods must be rattled 
to entice them to the homes prepared for them. 13 But 
Gilbert White thought the wild and fanciful asser- 
tion of the poet that echoes were harmful to bees would 
not be admitted by the philosophers of his day, " because 
bees, in good summers," says he, " thrive well in my outlet, 
where the echoes are very strong. . . . Besides, it 
does not appear from experiment that bees are in any way 
capable of being affected by sounds ; for I have often tried 
my own with a large speaking-trumpet held close to their 
hives, and with such an exertion of voice as would have 
hailed a ship at the distance of a mile, and still these 
insects pursued their various employments undisturbed, 
and without showing the least sensibility of resentment." 
Writing on the subject a century later, Sir John Lubbock 
says : " Bevan expresses, no doubt, the general opinion with 
reference to bees, when he says that ' there is good evidence 
that bees have a quick sense of hearing,' " but he farther 

13 " Georgics," iv. 



276 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

adds, from his own experience, " I have never succeeded in 
satisfying myself that my ants, bees, or wasps heard any 
of the sounds with which I tried them," and if they are not 
really deaf he thinks their " range of hearing is different 
from ours." He, however, like the Roman poet, is con- 
vinced that bees have great sensitiveness to certain colors, 
of which he places blue foremost. Montaigne relates a 
tale of the use of bees in warfare which illustrates their 
antipathy towards fire, whether, as Virgil says, red crabs 
are roasted in it or not : The Portuguese, having besieged 
the city of Tamly in the territory of Xiatine, the inhabi- 
tants of the place, to defend themselves, brought out many 
hives of bees and placed them on the walls of the town, 
and then with fire drove the bees so furiously upon the 
besieging enemies that they were forced to give up the 
siege and retire. 14 

Bees have from time immemorial been credited with 
foreknowledge, and especially of the future condition of 
the weather. If they refused to go out of the hive or sent 
out their scouts for observation, it was accepted as an 
indication of a day of doubtful character at least, while 
going out in large numbers without hesitation made sure 
of bright skies and plenty of sunshine. Spofford's Family 
Almanac for 1 840 says when bees do not go out as usual, 
but keep in or about their hives, rain may be expected. 
By a peculiar humming the bees are supposed by some peo- 
ple to tell correctly the night of the birth of the Saviour, 
and some of the country people in Yorkshire, after the 
change in the calendar, used to watch by the beehives and 
listen to their humming to determine "the true Christmas 
night. The old Germans, as well as the Romans, watched 
the bees to see if their movements indicated good or ill for- 

" " Natural History of Selborne," xxxviii ; " Ants, Bees, and Wasps," 
222, 303 ; Montaigne's " Essays," xii. 



BEES 277 

tune. If they settled on a house, it betokened fire, or other 
disaster. Tacitus mentions that a swarm of bees settling 
upon the cupola of the Capitol was one of the prodigies of 
evil omen in the time of the consulship of Marcus 
Asinius and Marcus Acilius. 15 A recent writer in the 
London Mail mentions a belief still prevalent in some 
Norfolk villages that if a swarm of bees in spring- 
time alights on dead wood it is a sign of a death in 
the family of the proprietor. A bee coming indoors is 
a sign that a guest may be expected. If a swarm of bees 
flies straight away from the land of the owner, he will 
meet with pecuniary loss, quite likely the loss of his bees. 
If a hive of bees is sold for less than a certain price in gold 
they will all die. 

This writer in the London Mail 16 says that it is still 
believed that if any one of the family of a beekeeper dies 
the bees must be put in mourning by pinning a piece of 
crape or some such black stuff upon their hives. If this is 
not done all the bees will die. He was assured again and 
again that it was a fact often tested by personal experience. 
Telling the bees of a death in the house, says Professor 
Tylor, while not unknown in England, is more extensively 
adopted among the Germans, where the message is given, 
not only to the bees and cattle, but every sack of corn must 
be touched and' everything in the house is shaken to notify 
these inanimate things of the sad event. Grimm 1T 
referring to the belief among the Germans, says the event 
of a death is announced to the bees by jingling the keys, Or 
they die out. Sometimes the danger is obviated by mov- 
ing the swarm to another place. A writer in the London 
Spectator refers to the belief as still prevailing in England, 

15 Dyer's "Popular Customs," 451; "Annals of Tacitus," xii. 64. 
16 James Blythe, quoted in New York Times, January 18, 1903. 
""Primitive Culture," i. 287; "Teutonic Mythology," 1800, 1848. 



278 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

and says they go in the night and tell the bees of a death 
in Essex, and put crape on the hive, or another death will 
occur within the year. 

Generous distribution of honey at the harvest is said to 
be favorable to a plentiful crop. If bees which had 
chosen a location under a church roof, were removed to 
profane surroundings, they laid up no honey and never 
prospered. Grimm refers to an ancient law of Wales in 
which it is assumed that as bees had their origin in Para- 
dise, which they were obliged to leave through man's 
transgression, God gave them his blessing, and there- 
fore mass cannot be sung without wax. 18 

In the Island of Timor, southwest of New Guinea, 
where the spirits of the dead which they revere are 
supposed to take various forms, men who have fallen 
in battle are especially inclined to assume the form of bees 
that they may roam the earth at their pleasure. 

In the Easter bonfires in the Altmark tar barrels and 
beehives were piled around a pole and burned, around 
which the young folks danced and made merry and then 
the older people collected the ashes and preserved them as 
a remedy for the ailments of bees. 19 

In Irish folk-lore is found a recipe for enticing bees 
into a tree by the use of a preparation made of foxglove, 
raspberry leaves, wild marjoram, mint, camomile, and val- 
erian. The herbs must be gathered on a May Day morn- 
ing and mixed with butter made on a May Day, and boiled 
in honey. Then the receptacle which is designed to hold 
the bees must be rubbed with the preparation, inside and 
out. 20 

In* Russia, every mill on a stream is supposed to be 

18 " Teutonic Mythology," 905, note. 
19 " The Golden Bough," iii. 46, 256. 
xo " Legends of Ireland," 213. 



BEES 279 

attended by a water-sprite called the Vodyony, who is a 
patron of beekeepers. They picture him as an old man 
with a great paunch and bloated face, and naked. The 
first swarm of the year belongs to him. It is weighted 
in a box with stone and thrown into the nearest river, as 
an offering. Sometimes also a honeycomb is taken from 
the hive on St. Zosimas Day and flung, at midnight, into 
a millstream to make friendly the sprite, whose cattle, it 
is thought, are driven into the fields to graze at night. 21 

Honey is reputed to have power over spirits, evil and 
good. It was claimed for a king who reigned in Egypt 
in the Second Dynasty (45 14-42 12 B.C.) that for eleven 
days during his rule the Nile flowed with honey. Honey 
increases strength and virility. It is used by Hindus for 
washing the household gods. The Deccan Brahman 
father drops honey into the mouth of his newborn child. 
In those of the higher class a gold spoon or ring is used 
to drop it from. When the bridegroom comes to the 
bride's house, honey is given him to sip, probably to scare 
away evil from him. They think it a great charm and 
purifier. It is the aliment of their gods. In Bengal the 
Brahman bride has part of her body anointed with it. A 
hymn of the " Rig Veda " says : " Let the winds pour down 
honey, the rivers pour down honey, may our plants be 
sweet. May the night bring honey, and the dawn and 
the sky above the earth be full of honey." 22 

The honeysuckle was thought to keep off witchcraft in 
England. Bees figured in the trials for witchcraft in the 
seventeenth century. Familiars and devils frequently took 
the form of bees. When the Archbishop of St. Andrews 
was murdered in 1679, on opening his tobacco box, it 

?1 " Songs of the Russian People," 149. 

22 " History of Egypt," W. M. F. Petrie, i. 23 ; Notes on the " Spirit Basis 
of Belief and Custom," James M. Campbell, 98, 99. 



2 8o MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

was said a devil or familiar in the form of a humming- 
bee flew out. A woman confessed that she murdered a 
child with the assistance of the child's grandmother, and 
she declared they both took the shape of " bume-bees " 
and carried poison in their clutches, wings, and mouth. 23 

Among the Mayas, there were two annual festivals held 
by the apiarists. In one of them propitiatory offerings 
were made to their patron deities, and especially to the four 
gods of abundance, to each of whom dishes adorned with 
figures of honey were presented. The other festival was 
specially designed to induce the gods to cause the flowers 
from which the bees gathered honey to grow in 
abundance. 24 

""The Darker Superstitions of Scotland," 562. 
24 " Native Races," ii. 699, 701. 



CHAPTER XVII 

FOWLS 

" With blessyngs of Saynt Germayne 
I wyll me so determyne 
That neyther fox nor vermyne 
Shall do my chyckens harme." 1 

The author of additions to Sir Anthony Herbert's 
" Book of Husbandry," in 1598, records his own personal 
experience in the breeding and care of poultry, in which he 
affirms that hens should sit upon an odd number of eggs 
and the eggs should be set so as to hatch in the increase of 
the moon, two statements which, to the personal knowl- 
edge of the writer, yet find favor in some localities. He 
says the leaves of a bay tree or " els some bents of grasse " 
will preserve eggs " from hurt of thunder," and that chick- 
ens must not be breathed upon by any " snake, toade, or 
other venomous thing"; if they have that misfortune, 
there must be quickly burnt among them some " Gal- 
banum, or woman hayre." Roots of nettles should be 
placed under eggs in brooding geese for in that way 
the goslings are not harmed by the stinging of the net- 
tles which might otherwise kill them. 2 The confidence 
of our English forefathers in the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries in the care taken of their brooding 
fowls by the saints is attested by quaint records in verse 
and prose yet preserved. Saint Legearde looked after 

1 Poem of 1562 quoted by Brand, 749. 
'W. W. Skeats' edition, 145, note. 

281 



282 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

the geese and Saint Leonarde the ducks. A publication of 
1 6 19 says : " They have saints that be good amongst poul- 
try, for chickens when they have the pip, for geese when 
they doe sit, to have a happy successe in goslings." 3 Among 
the lore on the subject collected by Grimm are found the 
following : If you twist a willow to tie up wood in a stable 
where hens, geese, or ducks are sitting, the chickens they 
hatch will have crooked necks; if your hens, ducks, or pigs 
die fast, light a fire in the oven, and throw in one of each 
kind, and the witch will then perish with them ; set the hen 
while people are coming out of church and you will have 
plenty of chickens hatched; if you want large-headed 
chickens wear a fine, large straw hat while you set the hen ; 
eggs put under the hen on Friday will not thrive, and what 
chicks creep out the bird eats up ; if the eggs are set on Val- 
entine's Day they will rot; if chickens are hatched on 
Peter's or Paul's Day they will prove good layers ; to make 
a hen hatch cocks or hens, take the straw for her nest from 
the man's or the woman's side of the bed. 4 It will be appar- 
ent that most of them are merely imitative, suggesting the 
most common principle of magic. Again, it is said, if 
straw which has formed part of an image that has been 
used in the magical ceremonies for bringing in the Spring 
is used in making the nest of a brooding hen, she will do 
better. 5 

Charms were formerly used in France to protect the 
poultry from the depredations of foxes. The following, 
which was to be repeated thrice a week, is found in the 
works of Jean Frederic Bernard, 1733: "Foxes, both 
male and female, I conjure you in the name of the Holy 
Trinity that ye neither touch nor carry off any of my 

3 Brand, 198. 

4 " Teutonic Mythology," 1778-1824. 
5 " The Golden Bough," ii. 96. 



FOWLS 283 

fowls, whether roosters, hens, or chickens; nor eat their 
nests, nor suck their blood-, nor break their eggs, nor do 
them any harm whatever." 6 

It is said that it was once a Welsh custom to thrash 
such hens as refused to lay before Shrove Tuesday with a 
flail, as no longer good for anything. If the hen was 
killed, it belonged to the man who wielded the flail. 

In some parts of England the burning of eggshells 
was thought to increase the productiveness of the hens, 
but in other parts it was regarded differently and believed 
that if the shells were burned the hens would cease to lay. 
The shells were ships which transported witches across 
rivers and seas to their homes in Lapland and the Ber- 
mudas, those unhallowed localities where storms contin- 
ually prevailed. The connection of witches with eggshells 
is as old as the time of Pliny. The shells were destroyed 
lest evil should be wrought with them by magic. The 
custom of thrusting a spoon through the shell after eating 
a boiled egg, in modern times, is an indication of the per- 
sistence of ancient traditions. It is said to have been the 
invariable habit of Napoleon III. Again, after certain 
ceremonies of consecration, eggs were used to counteract 
evil influences, and became valuable protectors as amu- 
lets. To this source is traced the origin of Easter 
eggs. 7 

If an egg was peculiarly formed or marked it was more 
especially regarded as possessed of talismanic qualities. 
When fear of comets and eclipses prevailed, eggs were 
carefully examined to see if there were figures of comets 
and eclipses on them. When great consternation pre- 
vailed at Rome in consequence of the appearance of the 
comet in 1680, a hen of Seignior Massimi de Campidoglio 

6 " Magic of the Horse-Shoe," 303. 

7 " Foundation Rites," 66. 



284 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

is said to have laid an egg in which the figure of a comet 
was distinctly traced. It was carried to be viewed by the 
Pope, who, wise as he was, knew not what to make of it. 
Papers of 1681 contained elaborate descriptions of the egg 
and speculations as to its mysterious portent. 

It is told by Suetonius that Livia, wife of Augustus 
Caesar, among various modes of divination to determine 
if her offspring would be a son or daughter, took an egg 
from a hen that was sitting, and kept it warm with her 
own hands and those of her maids, until a fine cock- 
chicken was hatched, with a large comb, on account of 
which the astrologers predicted great things of the child. 8 

In some parts of Africa it is said that none but priests 
are allowed to eat eggs. Among the ancient Irish, if 
owners of horses ate eggs they took care to eat an even 
number lest mischief come to the horse. Grooms were not 
allowed to eat them at all, and riders washed their hands 
after eating them. It is noted by a writer under date of 
1 83 1, in Hone's "Year Book," that the Norfolk house- 
wife, when she placed thirteen duck or geese eggs in a 
nest for incubation, swung a lighted candle over them to 
prevent hawks and crows from flying away with the young 
brood when hatched. Half a century ago, in North Not- 
tinghamshire, if eggs went out of the house after sunset, 
it brought ill luck. In Derbyshire it was a bad omen if 
they were brought into the house after dark, or on Sun- 
day. No hen must be set on Sunday, or after dark upon 
any day of the week. 9 

The bad luck that attends crowing hens is written in 
familiar proverbs the world over. The ancient Irish 
thought they were bewitched by fairies, and therefore 
stoned the hen, or killed it. In Albania, bad luck fol- 

8 " Lives of the Caesars," Tiberius, xiv. 
9 " Credulities Past and Present," 465, 469. 



FOWLS 285 

lowed the crowing of a hen if her head was towards the 
east, but the evil might be averted by killing the fowl, 
then and there. The victim, however, must be eaten. If 
the head was turned away from the east a crowing hen 
was sometimes regarded as a good omen. 10 

It is an old tradition that at cock-crowing spirits forsake 
the lower regions and go to their proper places. Ghosts 
disappear at the voice of the crowing cock. It has long 
been believed in many places that if a cock crow at mid- 
night, the angel of death is passing over the house, and 
his visit will be delayed but a short time. The ghost, 
in " Hamlet," was about to speak when the cock crowed: 

" And then it started like a guilty thing 
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard 
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, 
Does with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat 
Awake the god of day; and at his warning, 
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, 
The extravagant and erring spirit hies 
To his confine." u 

In the " Speculum Mundi," the cock is spoken of as 

" The peasant's trusty clock, 
True morning watch, Aurora's trumpeter, 
The lion's terror, true astronomer, 
Who leaves his bed when Sol begins to rise 
And when Sunne sets then to his roost he flies." 

That enmity existed between the lion and the cock, to 
the terror of the former, is as old as Pliny, and is often 
mentioned by writers in the intervening centuries. It was 
probably owing to this that the Roman author prescribed 
the broth from a stewed cock as an excellent outward 
application for those in peril from wild beasts, declaring 

10 "Customs and Lore of Modern Greece," 158; "Ancient Legends of 
Ireland," 207. 

11 Act i. scene 1. 



286 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

that those who bathed themselves in this were safe from 
harm by lion or panther. The broth of a cock has also 
been prescribed against the poison of serpents, for the 
cock fights serpents to defend his hens, and is a terror to 
the basilisk. 12 The courage with which the cock was 
blessed imparted to the weak made them brave and strong, 
hence the broth was advised for those wasting from long 
sickness and consumption, but in the cook books of the 
latter part of the sixteenth century it is insisted upon that 
the cock must not be too old, and must be a red one, to be 
effective in restoring the weak to ruddy health". The 
brain and comb of a cock were remedies suggested as 
serviceable in case of a bite by a mad dog. 

Pliny said a collar made of twigs prevented a cock 
from overcrowing. Throwing feathers in the fire was 
followed by the death of someone's flock, or a portion 
of it. When the ominous midnight voice of the cock was 
heard in Northern Scotland, warning of the death of some 
member of the family, the roost was carefully inspected to 
learn in what direction the bird was looking, as this gave 
a clue to the home of the doomed one. If the comb, 
wattles, and feet of the bird were cold, the moment of 
death was not far distant. 13 

It was formerly a prevalent notion that on Christmas 
Eve the cock crowed all night long, and that therefore 
on that night of such hallowed associations all evil influ- 
ences were banished. Shakespeare puts in the mouth of 
Marcellus an illusion to it, in speaking of the disappear- 
ance of the ghost at the crowing of the cock : 

""Natural History Lore and Legend," 154, referring to "Natural 
Magic," by John Baptist Porta, 1658. 

13 " Natural History," xxix. 24; "Celtic Folk-Lore, Welsh and Manx," 
John Rhys, ii. 599; "An Echo of the Olden Time from the North of Scot- 
land," Rev. Walter Gregor, 134. 



FOWLS 287 

" Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes 
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
The bird of dawning singeth all night long: 
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; 
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, 
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, 
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time." 14 

The terror brought upon the evil spirits that wander in 
the night, by the crowing of the cock, is mentioned by the 
writers of the fourth century. It is found in the " Scan- 
dinavian Edda," collected in the eleventh century. It is 
a survival of the time when the cock was a sacred solar 
bird, for it was once sacred to Mercury, one of the per- 
sonifications of the sun, and the symbol of Nergal, the 
idol of the Cuthites, believed to represent the sun. iEscu- 
lapius, to whom Socrates vowed a cock, was considered as 
a solar incarnation. 

A method of divination with cocks and hens cited by 
Schweinfurth in Africa is by giving an oily fluid made from 
red wood to a hen, when misfortune in war is portended 
if the bird dies, and victory if she survives. Again, a 
cock is seized and its head ducked in water till it is stiff 
and senseless, and then left to its fate. If it rallies, the 
omen is favorable, if it succumbs, the issue will be 
adverse. 15 

Fowls serve as scapegoats and carry away evil. Dis- 
ease is transferred to them. The color of the fowl is 
important in magical rites. A German proverb says: 

" When a black hen over a miser flies 
Soon after that the miser dies." 

A witch's ladder is made of a string tied in knots with the 
feather of a fowl inserted in every knot. One such was 



""Hamlet," i. 1. 

10 " Credulities Past and Present," 404. 



288 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

found in the belfry of a church in England in 1886. An 
Italian woman related to Leland an incident of the be- 
witching of a child in Florence by placing one in the bed 
where the child slept. As the knots were tied feathers 
from a living hen were plucked and stuck into them, a 
malediction being uttered at each knot. A figure of a hen 
made of cotton was also found in the bed. By taking the 
feathers of a black hen and working them into the effigy 
of a hen with the hair of a person or some of his clothing, 
and placing it in the bed or mattress of a person, the 
magician worked evil upon them. To remove the be- 
witchment, the hen must be found and thrown into running 
water, and the person taken to the church where baptism is 
taking place, or bathed in holy water. Gypsies in Hun- 
gary cure certain diseases 16 by rubbing the body of a black 
hen over a patient while uttering an incantation. 

Black cocks were used in conjuring up little men of the 
mountains and sacrificing to devils, but no white feathers 
must be on them. A black cock, born lame, takes the 
spell off from an enchanted castle. Their longest tail 
feathers are magical wands to open locks and make one 
walk invisible while seeing everything. 17 A way of avert- 
ing evil in North Riding of Yorkshire was to take a living 
black cock which had been pierced with pins, and burn it at 
dead of night, with every door, window, and crevice stuffed 
up. 18 

The Battas of Sumatra think the soul of a living man 
may be transferred by evil spirits to a fowl, when the doc- 
tor is sent for to extract the man's soul from the body of 
the fowl and restore it to its lawful owner. As late as the 

""Etruscan Roman Remains," 353, 354. 
17 Grimm, ioto, 1485. 

18 " Egyptian Magic," E. A. Budge, 100, note, quoting from Blake- 
borough, " Folk-Lore and Customs of North Riding." 



FOWLS 289 

middle of the nineteenth century epileptic fits were trans- 
ferred to fowls in Wales by magical rites, and fowls are 
reported to have been seen staggering under the burden of 
the trouble thus put upon them. The Guinea negro trans- 
fers to a chicken the evil that causes his sickness. He 
ties the fowl around his neck and lets it lie upon his breast. 
When it flaps its wings or cheeps, it is a sign that the pain 
is upon it, and relief will soon come. When a man dies 
of a contagious disease in India, the priest, with a chicken 
in his hands, walks in from the funeral procession, and 
allows the fowl to escape with the trouble in the direction 
of some other village. A native of Central Africa ties a 
white chicken by the leg to a branch of a certain kind of 
tree as an offering to the spirit of the Wood, to secure 
a favorable journey. In Amboyna a patient suffering 
from smallpox or other disease is rubbed over the body 
with a live white cock, and this is then placed in a little 
vessel and committed to the waves. So the evil spirit or 
influence causing his affection is driven away to the sea. 
The Kharwars of Northern India, when disease attacks 
their cattle, take a black cock and put red lead on his head, 
antimony in his eyes, a spangle on his forehead and a 
bangle on his leg, and let him loose, while calling upon the 
disease to mount on the fowl and go to the ravines and 
thickets. The opening ceremony at the harvest festivals of 
the Hos in Northeastern India, which take place at the 
end of the season, consists of a sacrifice by the priest of 
three fowls, two of them black, to the village god, which is 
accompanied with prayers for seasonable rain and future 
crops. Other rites in connection are intended to drive away 
an evil spirit that infests the place. Pausanias describes a 
ceremony performed at Methana for protecting the vines 
from the southwest wind, in which two men take a cock 
with white feathers only, and dividing it, each runs around 



290 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

the vines in different directions with half the cock. When 
they come back to the starting point the cock is buried, 
and probably the evil spirit with it. A red cock was dedi- 
cated by sick persons in Ceylon to a malignant divinity, 
and then offered as a sacrifice in the event of their recovery. 
Medicine was administered in Europe at the crowing of 
the cock. A cock was buried alive in Scotland for insan- 
ity, and the blood of a red cock mixed into a flour cake was 
administered to invalids, or a hen was burnt alive for some 
distempers. In Hooker's " Tour of Morocco," one of his 
attendants cut the throat of a cock, to appease the wrath 
of the demons when a storm raged upon the heights of the 
Atlas. 19 

In the Province of Bretagne a cock festival was held on 
the first Sunday in Advent. Each family brought a cock 
in honor of Saint Eldut. The finest of them was selected 
and carried to the top of a granite steeple and placed on 
the weathercock, where it remained for a short time, and 
was allowed to fly away. All sorts of good luck for the 
rest of the year was brought to the fortunate peasant who 
caught it. Old writers have discussed the origin of the 
cock on the weathervane, some contending that it origi- 
nated in the crowing of the cock when Saint Peter denied 
his Lord, and was devised to prevent schism in the church. 
Brand quotes from a work of 1633, in answer to the ques- 
tion, " Wherefore on the top of Church Steeples is the 
Cocke set upon the Crosse, of a long continuance? " the 
interpretation of the Jesuits, that it is for instruction ; 
" that whilst aloft we behold the Crosse and the Cocke 
standing thereon, we may remember our sinnes, and with 
Peter seeke and obtaine mercy." 20 It is most probable, 

19 " The Golden Bough," i. 275; iii. 13,15,78,103; Brand, 700; Pausanias, 
ii. xxxv ; "Credulities," 408. 
M " Antiquities," 324. 



FOWLS 291 

however, that the use of the cock as a weathervane is a 
survival of its use as an emblem of solar worship and that 
its use in this connection is associated with the idea that 
the crowing of the cock puts to flight the evil forces in the 
air which were believed to be the authors of the storm 
and hail and thunder and lightning. The image of that 
which was a terror to them would be a protection from 
them. 

The Strasburg edition of Sir John Mandeville in 1484 
was illustrated with representations of birds and beasts 
produced in the fruit of trees. It was a long-held theory 
that certain birds were generated from decaying wood, a 
theory which was combated in the works of Albertus 
Magnus. For centuries, a real living goose was believed 
to be developed from the shellfish barnacle which clings to 
the bottom of a ship, or water-soaked timber. Writers 
affirmed it as a fact from actual observation. An animal 
history in 1661 notes a belief that bustards were generated 
by the eructation of sperm from the mouth. The spon- 
taneous production of worms from wood was accepted as 
a fact ; the worms presently developed a head and feet and 
wings and tail feathers. The bird grew to the bigness of 
a goose and flew away. Holinshed affirmed that he saw 
with his own eyes the feathers hang out of the shell of a 
barnacle goose, which were at least . two inches long. 
Marston's verse says : 

" Like your Scotch Barnacle, now a block, 
Instantly a worm, and presently a great Goose." 

Gerard in 1597 wrote that in the north parts of Scotland 
there were certain trees upon which shellfishes grew, 
which, dropping into the water, " do become fowls whom 
we call Barnacles." Isaac Walton in the " Complete 
Angler " gives the verse of Du Bartas: 



292 MAGIC AND HUSBANDRY 

" So slow Bootes underneath him sees, 
In th' icy islands, goslings hatch'd of trees, 
Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water, 
Are turn'd, 't is known, to living fowls soon after." 

Gerard said it " groweth to fowle bigger than a mallard, 
and less than a goose, having black legs, and bill or beak, 
and feathers black and white," which was called in Lan- 
cashire a " tree-goose," and they were so plenty that they 
could be bought for " threepence." Another old writer 
says of them : " Men of religyon ete bernacles on fastynge 
dayes, by cause they ben not engendered of flesshe, wherin 
as me thinketh they erre. For reason is agaynst that. 
For yf a man had eten of Adam's legge he had eten flesshe ; 
and yet Adam was not engendered of fader and moder, 
but that flesshe came wonderfully of the erthe, and so this 
flesshe cometh wonderfully of the tree." 21 

21 " The Warfare of Science with Theology," i. 37 ; " Transit of Civiliza- 
tion," 43; Brand, 779; "Credulities," 719. 






INDEX 



Abasi, Calabar deity, 12 
Abercromby, John, cited, 165, 203 
Achan, oxen of, stoned and burned, 

230 
Adder stone, cures worked with, 

164 
Adonis, mourned at Byblus, 199 
/Bolus bound the winds for Odys- 
seus, 1 16 
VEsculapius, a solar incarnation, 287 
Agni, deity of fire, 181 
Agricultural festivals of Greeks and 

Romans connected with belief in 

magic, 187 
Agriculture, sent as punishment, 12 
Ahab, 112 

Ahriman, transformed into a ser- 
pent, 228 
Ainu, rain-making by, no 
Alazones, celebrated for their bees, 

272 
Albumasar, quoted, 127 
Alder, sacred, protected from 

witches, 142 
Algonquins, custom of, 22; use 

same word for moon and water, 

121 
Allen, Grant, cited, 15; quoted, 16; 

cited, 28 
Almanac, Spofford's, cited, 93, 276; 

Poor Richard's, 94; Poor Robin's, 

97 
Altars in form of cross around 

Mexican wells, 108 
Ambarvalia, 194 



American Ethnological Report, 
James Mooney, cited in, 239 

American Folk-Lore Journal, 51, 
59, 63, 96, 107, 135, 148, 172, 178, 
211 

Amulet, serpent used for, in Africa, 
85 ; use of eggs for, 283 

Ancestral shades, sacrificed to by 
Mundas, 58 

Anemone, sprang from blood of 
Adonis, 199 

Ani, Egyptian scribe, quoted, 2, 
76 

Animals, movements of, indicate the 
weather, 20; sexual movements 
of, greatest in the wane of the 
moon, 129 ; once deities, came to 
be associated with devils, 231; 
used as witnesses, 233 

Antiochus, letter of Archibius to, 

83 
Antoninus, M. Aurelius, quoted, 92 
Ants, legal proceedings against, 235 
Anvil, thrown in well as rain 

charm, 109 
Apache custom at corn-planting, 65 
Apep, enemy of the sun-god, 99 
Apis, how conceived, 215; festival 

of, held at new moon, 215 
Apollo, temple of, built of wax and 

wings of bees, 273 
Apple blossoms, boiled by witches 

to spoil fruit, 264 
Apples, blessed on St. James' Day, 

257 
Apple trees, beaten to make fertile, 
257 



293 



294 



INDEX 



Arcturus, 130 

Argeos, question of Plutarch about, 
68 

Aristaeus, said to have bred bees 
from oxen, 270 

Aristotle, thought mice generated 
by licking, 223 

Ark of Jahveh, drawn by white 
cows, 231 

Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 1 

Aryan hymn, 89 

Ascension Day, perambulations on, 
191; Gospel read at springs on, 
192 

Ash trees, powerful against witches, 
142 

Ashurbanabal, 128 

Ass, skull of, used to protect from 
thieves, 84; buried alive to bring 
rain, no; mutilated in legal pun- 
ishment, 234 

Asafetida, used against witchcraft, 
147; to foil evil spirits, 191 

Astarte, 133 

Astrology, formerly regarded as a 
science, 126 

Ataensic, name of Hurons for 
moon, 121 

Athene, dawn stayed by, for Odys- 
seus, 99 

Athenians, three sacred plowings 
.observed by, 38; prayer of, for 
rain, 92 

Australians throw sand in the air 
to hasten the sun, 100; use the 
same word for fire and wood, 174 

Avin, trial of a hog in, 234 

Ax, set up by the Esthonians to di- 
rect the wind, 115 

Aztecs, dough images substituted 
for men by, 70; use similar words 
for moon and water, 121 ; crushed 
a criminal at harvest festivals, 
240 



B 



Baal, prophets of, destroyed, 112; 
fires in Scotland, 180; thought 
wholesome for men and beasts, 
180; human sacrifices in, 182 

Babylonians, 127, 128 ; omen tab- 
lets of, 155 

Bacchus, feasts of, 212, 261^ cred- 
ited with the discovery of honey, 
271 

Baillie, Joanna, quoted, 158 

Baily, L. H., quoting from The 
Token, 211 

Baker, Sir Samuel, 87 

Bananas should be planted after 
full meal, 56 

Bancroft, H. H., 7, 21, 29, 51, 61, 
63, 80, 100, 109, 175, 222, 241, 
280 

Baring-Gould, S., 256, 271 

Barley, built in wall to bring fair 
weather, 100 

Beans, sewed in wane of the moon, 
131 ; condemned by Pythagoras, 
131 ; stalks burned at the feast 
of Tellus, 189 

Beasts, cure for, when bewitched, 
138; how to detect the witch, 140; 
obeyed St. Gall, 145; punished 
for transgressions of men, 230; 
clothed as men and tried as crim- 
inals, 233 

Beating the bounds in 1901, 194 

Beauchamp, W. H., quoted, 8 

Bechuana, King, disease of, trans- 
ferred to an ox, 231 

Bees, produced from dead animals, 
268 ; final extinction of the be- 
lief, 271 ; use stones in balancing, 
273 ; die if looked upon by a 
menstruous women, 274; swarms 
must not be placed near a yew 
tree or an echo, 275 ; foreknowl- 



INDEX 



295 



edge of, 276 ; omens of, 277 ; 
must be told of death in the 
family, 277 ; hives burnt in bon- 
fires, 278 
Beetles, legal proceedings against, 

234 

Bells, hung on necks of cows to 
protect from witches, 152 

Bengal, rain charm in, in 

Berecintha, festival of, 29 

Bernard, Jean Frederic, 282 

Bible: Genesis, 5, 213, 228; Exe- 
dus, 29, 102, 147, 154, 160, 174, 
205, 230; Leviticus, 29, 64, 152, 
174, 218, 231, 245; Numbers, 85, 
231; Deuteronomy, 29, 64,-174, 
186; Joshua, 230; Judges, 188, 
270; I Samuel, 84, 231; II Sam- 
uel, 71, 77, "3; I Kings, 33, 
112, 186; II Kings, 29, 186; II 
Chronicles, 186; Psalms, 218, 231; 
Isaiah, 32, 174; Jeremiah, 29, 
186; Ezekiel, 174, 199; Hosea, 
82; Joel, 32; Micah, 32, 155; 
Revelation, 174; Polychrome edi- 
tion, Joshua, 100; Ezekiel, 219 

Bilutschi, deity, 112 

Bion, 200 

Birch, boughs of, burnt on St. 
John's Night, 178; tree associated 
with the thunder-god, 213; with 
May Day and Easter cere- 
monies, 213 

Black, sheep, used as a rain charm 
in Peru, 106; cat in Sumatra, 
106; hen, buried alive to change 
the wind, 116; cat, buried alive 
to heal herd, 160 

Blazing wheel, rolled to make sun- 
shine, 183; at Konz, 183 

Blessing animals, origin of, 232 

Blind dog, buried under stable 
door, makes herds fertile and pre- 
vents cows from straying, 223 



Bobowissi, African deity, 17; lord 
of thunder, 109 ; sacrifices to, 109 

Bohica, cultured god, 6 

Bones burnt in fires on St. John's 
Night, 178 

Bonfires, originally bone-fires, 178 ; 
lighted with birch, a foil for 
evil spirits, 178 ; artificial giants 
burned in, 182 

Book of the Dead, 151 

Booths, festival of, a survival of 
tree- worship, 218 

Bots, cure for, 169; in Kentucky, 
171 

Bougonia, Greek name for bees sup- 
posed to be generated from ani- 
mals, 270 

Bourke, John G., 29, 37, 65, 87, 
112, 148, 212, 217, 223 

Boys, whipped at boundaries, 192 

Brahman bride anointed with 
honey, 279 

Brand's, John, Antiquities, cited, 43, 
64, 88, 89, 94, 126, 130, 139, 161, 
184 

Brain, influence of moon upon, 129 

Bread fruit, origin of, 8 

Brinton, D. G., 6, 21, 84, 109, 117, 
133, 178, 222, 241 

Brooke, Sir James, magical power 
attributed to, by natives, 58 

Broth of cock, preserves from wild 
beasts, 286 

Browne, Sir Thomas, 85, 95 

Browning, Robert, cited, 200 

Bruce, Robert, 164 

Budde, Carl, cited, 154 

Buddha, fruits ascribed to his good- 
ness, 5 

Budge, E. A. W., 2, 76, 99, 288 

Buffalo, sacrificed in India, 25 

Bukowina, corpse used for rain 
charm in 117 

Bull, burned alive to cure plague, 



296 



INDEX 



165 ; kept for use of parish in 
England, 217 

Burial, a primitive means of pro- 
tection from the dead, 17; cus- 
toms, 18 

Burma, plowing and sowing in, 61 ; 
fasting observed in, 61 

Burning, wheels, in Isle of Mull 
to heal cattle, 183 ; bound with 
St. Johnswort, 185; fox at feast 
of Ceres, 187; Ovid's account of, 
188 

Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 
cited, 102 

Bury St. Edmunds, shrine of, vis- 
ited by barren women, 212 

Busiris, 113 



Cabbages, growth of, controlled by 
magic, 50; protected from cater- 
pillars, 84 
Cacao, exposed to moonlight before 

planting, 132 
California, Indians of, 108 
Canaanites, sacrificed to trees, 263 
Cambodia, expulsion of evil spirits 
in, 129; prayers read over crop 
in, 252 
Campbell, J. M., cited, 162, 279 
Candolle, Alphonse de, 2, 57 
Carrying out death, ceremony of, 

198 
Carthaginians, live persons sus- 
pended from trees by, 262 
Cat, used as rain charm, 106 
Cats, hospitals for, in Egypt, 172; 
burned alive Midsummer Eve at 
Paris, 182 
Caterpillars, Roman methods of 
protecting from, 83 ; kept from 
cabbages by piece of coffin, 84; 
known as witches' elves, 138; 



image of used to cure murrain, 
163 ; legal proceedings against, 

235 

Catlin, George, 211; on bull dance 
of Mandans, 216; quoted, 239 

Cato, 3 

Cattle should be gelded when moon 
is in Aries, Sagittarius or Capri- 
corn, 130; burnt in Wales and 
England to cure plague, 162; 
cured with holy water, 166 

Cedar, fertilizing power of, 207 

Celts, puppies burnt by, to rid fields 
of weeds, 88; rain charm of, 104; 
criminals sacrificed by, 181 

Centeotl, goddess, 6 

Ceres, 5 ; first introduced the plow, 
35 ; burning fox let loose at fes- 
tival of, 187; feast of, 244 

Cervantes, 11 

Chacs, corn deities of the Mayas, 
108 

Chambers' Encyclopaedia, 274 

Chams sacrifice to the god-rat, 84 

Charlotte Islanders conjure away 
fog, 100 

Charm, to secure a good season, 
among Chinese, 79; to make but- 
ter come, 87 ; to bring rain, 105 ; 
to stop rain, 106; of Mayas, 108 

Chastity, observed at sowing time 
by Germans, Karens and Indians 
of Nicaragua, 61 

Cherokee, myth of, 7; corn-planting 
by. 65 ; origin of Milky Way, 
134; green corn dance of, 239 

Chestnut, origin of, 8 

Cheyennes, rite of, 217 

Chichen Itza, sacrifice for rain in, 
108 

Chicomecoatl, Aztec goddess of 
food and drink, 241 

Child drowned by Roumanians to 
bring rain, in 



INDEX 



297 



Children jump through flames in 
Ireland, 185 

Chinese, peasant song of, 2; ori- 
gin of husbandry among, 4; 
Book of Rites, 80; charm of 
good season, 81 ; to bring rain, 
114; rite of taking fire out of 
doors, 177 

Cholera, prevented in India by 
fires, 177 

Christmas, evergreens, traced to 
Roman Saturnalia, 54; ceremony 
in Wales, 85 

Church, bells of, rung to stop rain, 
100; accounts in Rogation Week, 

193 

Cicero, origin of name of, 3 ; say- 
ing of, 3 

Cinteotl, god of maize, 241 

Clove trees, treatment of, in Moluc- 
ca, 263 

Cobs, Negro ceremonies with, 132 

Cock, built into a wall to bring 
fair weather, 100; sacred to Mer- 
cury, 287; puts evil to flight on 
Christmas Eve, 287; divination 
by, 287 ; origin of, on weather- 
vane, 290 

Cockatrice, hatched from cock's 
egg, 229 

Cockchafers, summoned to court, 
234 

Collins, William, quoted, 164 

Comanche Indians, slave whipped 
by, to bring fair weather, 100 

Comstock, J. H., cited on honey- 
dew, 274 

Conception promoted by burying 
blind dog inside stable door, 223 

Contemporary Review, Phil. Robin- 
son, cited in, 258 

Conway, M. D., quoted, 34, 167 

Corn, origin of, 7 ; planting of, by 
Apache and Cherokee, 65 ; blessed 



on Palm Sunday, 88; planted in 
light of the moon, 130; how pre- 
vented from blight, 175 

Cornfield, perambulated by naked 
Sioux woman, 59 ; garments 
dragged round by Ojibwa wo- 
man, 59 ; protected by carrying 
fire around, 175 ; gospel read in, 
193 ; blessed in Isle of Lewis, 
194 

Council of Constantinople forbids 
bonfires, 179 

Cow-Death expelled in Russia, 167 

Cowley, Abraham, 3 ; quoted, 31, 

259 

Cows, protection of, from evil eye, 
150; sacrifices of, at feast of Tel- 
lus, 188; Soothed by lullabies, 
203 

Cozumel, temple of, 108 

Crabs, burnt to counteract influ- 
ence of moon, 124 

Creek Indians, needfire made by, 
176; festival of new corn, 240 

Crom-cruaith, deity, 154 

Crooke, William, 40, 82, 83, 109, 
144, 150, 169, 253 

Cross, symbol of rain, 108 ; figure 
in temple of Cozumel, 108 ; fas- 
tened to tail of cattle to protect 
them, 145 ; phallic significance 
of, 221 ; emblem of the winds, 
221 

Crowing hen , said to be bewitched, 
by the Irish, 284 

Crystal charms used in healing 
cattle by the Irish, 163 

Cultivation, allied with religious 
belief, 14 

Cushing, F. H., quoted, 14 

D 

Dakota Indians, first fruits of, set 
apart for a feast, 239 



298 



INDEX 



Dalyell, John G, 87, 103, no, 163, 
171, 280 

Dancing, to promote growth of 
vegetation, 51; by Hottentots be- 
fore the moon, 132; round bon- 
fires on St. John's Day, 179, 
184 

Dante, 102, 197, 259 

Date palm, artificial fertilization of, 
i 

Death in the family told to the 
bees, 277 

Deeny, Daniel, cited, 37 

Deities and Kings sometimes 
synonymous, 4 

Demeter, festival of, 195, 242; im- 
age of preserves fruit, 259 

Demons , dwell in untilled places, 
191 ; appeased by blood of cocks, 
288 

Devil, tempests caused by, 102; 
captur&s wandering souls on St. 
John's Night, 178; assisted in 
planting the vine, 255, 257 

Devils, transferred to beasts, 231; 
take the form of bees, 280 

Digby, Sir Kenelm, cited, 223 

Dionysius, 69 

Dionysus, 219 

Disease, sent as punishment, 159; 
transferred to fowls in New 
Guinea, 289 

Distaff, forbidden to be whirled 
along the highways in ancient 
Italy, 52 

Divination, by Kharwars, 48; by 
eggs, 283 ; by cock, 287 

Divining rod, 213 

Dog, used in rain charm by Ainu, 
no; buried inside stable door to 
promote conception, 223 

Domalde, Swedish king, sacrificed 
to Odin, 72 

Dorsey, J. Owen, cited, 7 



Doves, legal proceedings against, 

235 

Dragon king, images of, used in 
China to bring rain, 108 

Drought, corpse used to counteract, 
118 

Druids, first fruits offered to the 
sun god by, 154; sacrificed cap- 
tives and criminals, 181 ; cere- 
mony of, in gathering mistletoe, 
212 

Dyaks hunt for human heads to 
make rice grow, 72 

Dyer, T. F. T., 85, 88, 140, 143, 
177, 192, 209; quoting from En- 
glish Folk-Lore, 264, 267 



E 



Earle, Prof., suggestions by, of ori- 
gin of saying of St. Swithin, 198 

Earthquakes, more frequent at full 
moon, 133; perambulations on 
account of, 191 

Earth spirits, invocation of, 16 

Easter eggs, origin of, 220; con- 
nected with ceremonies of fecun- 
dity, 220 

Easter fires, in Germany, 180; 
squirrels burnt in, 181 

Echoes, unfavorable to bees, 275 

Eclipses, evil effects of, counter- 
acted by fires, 177 

Edda, fire and wind said to be 
brothers in, 173 

Edwards, Amelia B., 1 

Effigies, burned in Baal fires, 181 ; 
of fruit used in Ceylon to pro- 
mote growth, 264 

Eggleston's, Edward, Transit of 
Civilization, cited, 269, 292 

Eggs, buried under threshold, 138; 
used at orgies of Dionysus, 220; 



INDEX 



299 



used as amulets, 283 ; in divina- 
tion, 283 ; omens of, 284 

Eggshells, destroyed to prevent 
magic, 283 ; used to transport 
witches, 283 

Egyptians, earliest paintings of, 1 ; 
agriculture of, 2 ; plows of, 32 ; 
swine driven over sown fields by, 
60; formulas to make sunshine, 
98 ; reasons given by priests of, 
for rejecting swine, 129 ; belief 
of, in generative influence of 
moonlight, 215; punished by 
smiting their cattle, 230; first 
fruits used as offerings by, 242 

Eleazar, evil spirit drawn from 
nostrils of demoniac by, 227 

Elf shots, wounds made by, cured 
by prayers, 164 

Elf stones, used as charms, 164; 
weapons of fairies, 164 

Elijah, contest of, with the prophets 
of Baal, 112 

Ellis, A. B., 17, 22, in, 253 

Ellis, William, 8, 249 

Elworthy's Evil Eye, cited, 85 

Epileptic fits transferred to fowls 
in Wales, 289 

Eskimo think rain is urine of 
deity, in; make images of 
whales to make them plenty, 264 

Eric, King, with enchanted cap 
changed the wind, 116 

Esthonians, sowing custom of, 50; 
prayer for rain, 93 ; serpent set 
up by, to bring wind, 115; bury 
one of the herd to cure murrain, 
161 

Evans, E. P., 119, 146, 156, 232 

Evil Eye, guarded against in Ire- 

■ land, 37; bewitches milk, 139; 
protecting from, 147 

Evil spirits driven from clouds by 
shooting, 103; expulsion of, 129; 



driven into animals, 158; com- 
manded to disperse by Grego.y 
XIII., 191 
Evreus, ritual of, cited, 236 
Excrements buried by Israelites to 
prevent witchcraft, 29 



Fascinum, worship of, prohibited, 
220 

Festival of St. John, observed in 
Middle Ages, 178; of Ceres, 
244 

Fewkes, J. Walter, cited, 73 

Fijis entagle sun in reeds, 100; evil 
spirits expelled by, 129 

Finger worm, charm against, 84 

Finns heal elf shot wounds by 
prayers, 164 

Fire, origin of, 173; unlucky to 
give it away on May Day, 176; 
protects from eclipses and chol- 
era, 177 

Firebrands tied to tails of foxes "by 
Samson, 188 

Fiery stick waved in Scotland to 
protect corn, 177 ; plow drawn in 
Franconia at Shrovetide, 179; 
circle made by Irish to guard 
children, 185 

First fruits offered by Egytians in 
antiquity, 242 ; to appease de- 
ceased ancestors, 243 ; in the Isl- 
and of Tanna, 264 

Flaman Dialis sacrificed lamb to 
Jupiter at beginning of grape 
harvest, 244 

Flax sowing in Thuringia, 50; 
naked peasant girls dance round 
in the Saalfield country, 59; seed 
sterilized by touch of menstru- 
ous women, 59 



3oo 



INDEX 



Flea, bite of, sign of wet weather, 

93 

Flora, alleged to have been a 
courtesan, 208 

Floralia, origin of, 208 ; festival of, 
a period of great license, 209 

Foals inferior in the wane of the 
moon, 130 

Fool Plow in England, 44; forbid- 
den by Council of Ulm, 45 

Forespoken water used for healing 
cattle in the Orkneys, 166 

Fowl buried in sand to change the 
wind, 116; as scapegoat, 287; in 
magical rites, 287; to cure epil- 
eptic fits, 289 

Fowler, W. Warde, 53, 78, 100, 
139, 188, 262 

Fox burned at feast of Ceres, 188 

Fragments of crop left for spirit 
of vegetation, 245 

Frankum's Night, critical time for 
fruit, 257 

Frate Alberico's Vision of St. Pat- 
rick's Purgatory, 261 

Frazer, J. G., 5, 22, 23, 25, 30, 42, 
51, 54, 60, 73, 79, 100, 115, 129, 
147, 240 

Frazer's, J. G., Pausanias, cited, 

259, 273 

Friga, mistletoe sacred to, 212 

Frog, croaking of, sign of rain, 93 ; 
beaten to bring rain, 117; killed 
by Thompson River Indians, 117; 
hung on a tree as a rain charm 
in India, ir7; given to dog pre- 
vents barking, 172 

Fruits, time for sowing, 130; gath- 
ered in wane of moon, 130 

Fruit trees, marriage of, in India, 
263 ; libations to, on Christmas 
Eve, 267 

Furness', W. H., Home Life of Bor- 
neo Head-Hunters, cited, 72, 253 



Gay, John, quoted, 194, 197 

Gall of black ox used as rain 
charm, 101 

Gelasius I., puts an end to feast of 
Lupercal, 206 

Gelding should be at wane of 
moon, 130; when in Aries, 130 

Germans thought indulgence at 
sowing imperiled harvest, 62 

Ghosts disappear at cock-crowing, 
285 

Giants of osiers in processions at 
Douay, 182; burned in bonfires 
in England, 182 

Gifford, Ellen M., refuge for ani- 
mals established by, 172 

Gilgit, sacred cedar of, 207. 

Girls yoked and driven into water 
as a rain charm, 105 

Gleanings left by Hebrews and 
others, 245 

Goat hung to mast to bring favor- 
able wind, 115; constellation of, 
injurious to vines, 125; sacri- 
ficed at the Lupercal, 207 

Godfrey de Bouillon, 163 

Gold Coast, negroes of, sacrificed 
at foot of trees, 82 

Goldziher's Hebrew Mythology, 
legend of Samson, cited in, 188 

Gomme, G. L., cited, 25, 57, 253 

Gonds sprinkle blood of boys in 
the fields, 23 

Googe, Barnaby, quoted, 45, 89, 
190; on Corpus Christi Day, 192 

Goose, weather predicted from bone 
of, 119; developed from barna- 
cles, 292 

Gospel trees, scriptures read under, 
in Rogation week, 192; Herrick 
quoted on, 192 

Gowdie, Isabell, confession of, 102 



INDEX 



301 



Grafting should be at increase of 

moon, 125; when in Taurus, 130; 

Virgil, cited on, 258 
Grand Natchez of Florida, 109 
Granger, Frank, 52, 82, in, 200, 

245 
Grape harvest begun by Flamen 

Dialis, 244; vine, legend of 

origin, 256 
Green corn dance of Cherokee, 239; 

festival of Minatarees, 239 
Greeks believed sun could be has- 
tened or stayed, 100; rain charm 

of, 104 
Gregor, Walter, cited, 42, 87, 286 
Gregory XIIL, edict of, against 

earthquakes, 191 
Grimm, Jacob, 20, 37, 41, 45, 51, 

59, 65, 84, 92, 100, 113, 116, 130, 

137, 161, 182, 248 
Grimoald, Duke of Benevento, 160 
Grove deities held responsible for 

crops, 82 
Guyaquil Indians, sacrifices of, at 

sowing, 22 

H 

Hair used in rain charm, 117; put 

in streams to increase flow of 

water, 117 
Halcyon, weather foretold by, 96 
Halcyone, daughter of v£olus, 96 
Halliwell, quoted, 264 
Hallow Eve, witches active on, 177 ; 

kept away by fire, 177 
Hammurabi, tablets of his reign, 2 
Hand of dead man used against 

witchcraft, 143 
Hands and feet, movements of, to 

promote growth of vegetation, 50 
Harley, T., cited, 132 
Hartlieb, 'Dr., cited, 101 
Harvest festivals, antiquity of, 237; 



criminal sacrificed at, by Aztecs, 
241 ; of Incas, 241 ; in Scotland 
and Sweden, 247; ceremony be- 
gun by priest in Little Russia, 
249; among Malays, 250; in 
Siam, 251 
Hawthorn, sacred to fairies, 142; 
Hazel, sacred to sky god, 211 
Hearn, Lafcadio, cited, 98, 152 
Hebrews, law of, for burial of 
hanged man, 17, 152; human 
sacrifices of, to avert calamity, 
155; forbidden to carry children 
through fire, 186 
Hedgehog, weather predicted by, 

94 

Heitsieibib, hero-god of Hottentots, 
223 

Henderson, William, cited, 37, 162 

Heno, Iroquois deity, patron of hus- 
bandry, 20 

Henry VIII., May Day observed 
by, 209 

Hens should be set at new of 
moon, 125; not on Friday or Val- 
entine day, 282; not on Sunday, 
284 

Herbert, Anthony, quoted, 65; 
cited, 144, 162, 281 

Hercules, shield of, 2; poplar used 
in rites of, 213 

Herd, protected from witches by 
red thread, 139; by charm, 142 

Hermes, protector of flocks, 160 

Herodotus, 1, 60, 85, 225 

Herrick, Robert, quoted, 88, 166, 
237, 247 ; on honey-dew, 274 

Hertha, worship of, by Suevi, 19 

Hesiod, 2, 19, 34, 48, 134 

Highlanders burn juniper before 
their cattle, 148 ; bull sacrificed 
by, to heal cattle, 162 

Hindu hires a man to take disease 
away to the jungle, 162; views 



302 



INDEX 



of fire, 174; gods washed with 
honey, 279 

Hippocrates, cited by Pliny, 177; 
doctrine of two principles, 215; 
tomb of, 273 

Hock-cart, 247 

Hoddentin scattered by medicine 
men at corn-planting, 65 

Hogs should be killed in increase 
of moon, 130; condemned to 
death in Avin, 234 

Holinshed, cited, 291 

Homer, 2, 28, 73, 116, 218 

Honey, discovery of, attributed to 
Bacchus, 271 ; gathered from 
trees, 271 ; an offering to Janus, 
273; power over spirits, 279; 
Hindu gods washed with, 279 ; 
dropped in the mouth of new- 
born children, 279 

Honey-dew, ancient belief of, 274; 
source of it, 274 

Honeysuckle, boughs of, protect 
from witches, 139; prevents 
witchcraft, 279 

Hopi, corn and flour substituted for 
children among, 70; prayers of, 
for rain, 107 

Horace, quoted, 53, 121 

Horse, head of, thrown in Midsum- 
mer fires, 85; Persians sacri- 
fice to Mithras, 85 ; set up 
against witches, 85 ; made lame 
by sticking nail in footprints, 141 ; 
Sir Anthony Herbert cited on, 
145 ; buried under threshold of 
stable to save the herd, 162; 
healed by song, 200 

Horse racing, origin of, among the 
Greeks, 196 

Horses of the sea, Norse legends of, 
36 

Horseshoe protects butter from 
witches, 143 



Hottentots dance before the moon, 
132; drive sheep through fire, 
181 

How-tsih introduced ceremonies 
for sowing, 57 

Hudibras, quoted, 190 

Huitzilopochtli, nature deity origi- 
nally, 20; festival of, 21 

Hulme, F. Edward, quoted, 94, 
118; cited, 165, 269, 286 

Human sacrifices to agricultural 
deities, 20 ; by Pawnees, 22 ; by 
Khonds, 24; Leads caught by 
Dyaks to make land prosperous, 
72; bones used to compel the 
clouds, 133; sacrifices at harvest 
festivals in Peru,. 240 

Hunyas, 158, 160 

Hymettus, honey of, 272 



Image of man substituted for man 
in India, 69 ; of dough used by 
Aztecs, 70; of St. Pancrace 
restores child to life, 234 

Incas, harvest rites of, 241 

India, rain charm in, 106, 109; 
horses sprinkled with blood in, 
141 ; protection from evil eye in, 
150; cutting sugar cane in, 253 

Indians of Nicaragua eat no salt or 
pepper at planting, 61 ; of Cali- 
fornia think world a globe of 
fire, 174; green corn dance of 
Cherokee, 239; new corn festival 
of Creek, 240 

Ingathering feast among Hindus, 
181, 253 

Inishglora, black hen burned alive 
in, to change wind, 116 

Inman, Thomas, cited, 218, 220 

Innocents' Day, trees beaten on, to 
make fertile, 257 



INDEX 



303 



Insects excommunicated in name 

of Trinity, 234 
Inverkeithing, phallic ceremony 

in, 220 
Invocation sung in Hebrides, 203 
Ionians, festival of, 70; rain charm 

of, no; origin of Milky Way, 

134 

Iranians, 121 

Irish thought ash tree powerful 
against witches, 142 ; cure for sick 
beasts, 163; made circles of fire 
to protect from evil, 185; jump 
through fire with their children, 
186 

Iron, prejudice against, 32; use of 
in plowing followed by bad sea- 
sons in Poland, 33; first used in 
America, 33; believed to poison 
the land, 33 

Iroquois, corn-legends of, 74 

Island of Nias, wandering spirits 
in, provided for by sowing a spe- 
cial field, 245 

Isle of Lewis, Hallow-tide custom 
in, 89; cornfields blessed in, 194 

Isle of Man, fires carried round 
cattle in, 177 ; perambulations in, 
194 

Isle of Mull, cattle healed in, by 
burning wheel, 183 

Isis, the discovery of wheat and 
barley credited to, 5 ; consecrated 
a phallic image of Osiris, 220 

Israelites, 29, 85, 174 

Ivanovka, drought in, caused by 
suicide, 118 

Iztacaceenteotl, goddess of white 
maize, to whom lepers were 
sacrificed, 21 



Jacob's service to Laban, 214 
Jahveh, 5 ; sends hail, 102 ; a con- 



suming fire, 174; first fruits of- 
fered to, 245 

James VI., condemns Reginald 
Scot's book, 137 

Janus, offerings of honey to, 273 

Jarillo, Russian Priapus, 220 

Jastrow, Morris, 128, 156, 219,227 

Java, offerings in, to spirit of rice- 
field, 58 ; ceremony in, to bring 
fair weather, 101 

Jenks, Albert E., cited, 133 

Jennings, William, translation of 
Shi King, 4, 47 

Job, legend of, 271 

Johnson, Samuel, 129 

Jones, William, 48, 80, 163, 164; 
quoting from British Appollo, 
229 ; trials of animals, 234, 284 

Jonson's, Ben, Alchemist, quoted, 
268 

Josephus, cited, 228 

Judah, children of, sacrificed sons 
in fire, 186 

Judas, figure of, burnt in bonfires, 
181 

Juniper, burnt before cattle by 
Highlanders, 148 

Juno's alleged interview with 
Flora, 209 

Jupiter, sacrifices to, for rain, 101 ; 
prayers of Roman women to, 105 

K 

Ka, 151 

Kaffirs, 153 

Kamtchatkans think rain urine of 

deity, 112 
Karens observe chastity at sowing, 

61 ; formula of, for calling back 

spirit of rice, 77 
Kautantowit, deity, 7 
Kayans drive evil spirits away by 

fragments of enemies, 72 



3<H 



INDEX 



Keats, John, quoted, 132 

Kelicranky, battle of, 140 

Kenyas, custom of, 72 

Kharwars, earth goddess propiti- 
ated by, 57; transfer disease of 
cattle to fowls, 289 

Khonds, belief of, 19 

Khufu, reign of, 1 

Kid must not be seethed in mother's 
milk, 147 

Kildare, fires in, 177 

Kilkenny fires, 177 

Kings share with deities responsi- 
bility for weather, 114; punished 
for failure of crops, 114 

Kingsley, Charles, quoted, 158 

Kingsley, Mary H., cited, 18 

Kirchmeyer's Popish Kingdom, 
cited, 184 

Knight, R. P., cited, 215, 218, 220 

Knotted threads used to heal 
beasts, 168 

Kod, goddess, 212 

Kols dance to stimulate the earth, 

83 
Konz, Midsummer festival at, 182 
Kunbis, custom of, 144 



Laleen, priest of Alfoors, 75 
Lamb buried to save the flock, 162 
Landor, A. H. S., cited, 158 
Lang, Andrew, cited, 54; on ex- 
cesses at sowing time, 61 
Lapland, custom in, to avert witch- 
craft, 87 ; wizards tie up the 
wind, 115 
Last sheaf in the form of a cock, 

246; in form of a woman, 246 
Lawrence, R. M., cited, 130, 283 
Lea, H. C, cited, 101, 114, 160,197 
Lecky, W. E. H., quoted, 135 



Lee stone used in Scotland for heal- 
ing, 163 
Leeks worn by Welshmen on St. 
David's Day, 64; worshiped in 
Egypt, 64; sacred to agricul- 
tural deity of Druids, 64 
Legge's, James, Religions of China, 

cited, 244 
Leland, Charles G., cited, 288 
Lentulus, origin of name, 3 
Letts sacrificed goat at Christmas, 

154 
Liber, Italian deity who protected 

vines, 261 
Li Chi, early offerings mentioned 

in, 243 
Lighted candle foils witches, 177 
Lightning, specific against, 179 ; 

fertilizes water, 187 
Lindo, Miss, hospital for horses 

founded by, in London, 172 
Litanies put evil spirits to flight, 

191; avert plagues, 191; prevent 

frost and blight, 192 
Little Russia, fires in, on St. John's 

Night, 178 
Live cats burned at Paris Midsum- 
mer Eve, 182 
Longfellow, H. W., quoted, 36; 

Dante, cited, 261 
Lowrie, Patrick, conviction of in 

1605, 86 
Lubbock, Sir John, cited, 276 
Lucky days for sowing, 47 
Lucretius, quoted, 19, 173 
Lupercal day changed to that of 

Purification of the Virgin, 205 ; 

customs of, 206, 216 



M 

Macbeth, 116 

Mad stone used in Scotland, 163 



INDEX 



305 



Maeterlinck, Maurice, quoted, 272 

Magonians, legend of, 114 

Mahadeo, Indian deity, 69 

Maidenhead, beating bounds at, 
in 1901, 194. 

Maize, traditions of, 6; man de- 
veloped from, 6; Mexican sacri- 
fices in cultivation of, 21 ; should 
be planted with full stomach, 55 

Malays, sowing rice among, 56; 
searching for camphor, 86 ; rain 
charm, 106; harvesting rice, 250 

Mallet's Northern Antiquities, 72, 
176 

Malleus malificarum, cited, 136 

Mamertus, perambulations on As- 
cension Day, traced to, 191 

Manasseth used enchantments, 186 

Mandans decorate medicine lodge 
with willows, 211; bull dance of, 
216 

Manilius, quoted, 31 

Mannhardt, quoted by Frazer, 208 

Manx, sheep burnt by, on May 
Day, 148 ; drove cattle through 
fire, 179; protect from witches 
with rhymes, 194 

Mares impregnated by the wind, 
222 

Marimos kill a man among the 
wheat, 23 

Markham, C. R., cited, 63, 217, 
242 

Marlowe, Christopher, cited, 95 

Marriage of fruit trees by German 
peasants, 263 

Mars, influence of, 125 ; protector of 
herds, 195; annual expulsion of, 
198 

Martin, W. A. P., quoted, 5 ; cited, 
80, 108 

Martyr, Justin, thought spade in 
form of cross made earth pro- 
ductive, 33 



MarvelPs, Andrew, garden, quoted, 

260 
Masswaweinini, magician, 8 
Matebele, rain charm of, 101 
Mather, Cotton, cited, 238 
Mather, Increase, cited, 268 
Maturity of fruit, feast of, 218 
Maui, stole fire from the gods, 173 
Mayas held a hunting feast to 
avert evil from sown fields, 62; 
cacao planters among, sacrifice 
a dog for the crop, 80; rain 
charm of, 108 ; first ears of har- 
vest offered to the gods, 241 ; 
festival of, 280 
May Day, unlucky to give away 
fire on, 176 ; cattle driven through 
fire on, 179 
May festivals in Britain survivals 

of Floralia, 208 

Maypole, fertilizing power of, 208 ; 

oldest in Lostock, 209 ; put down 

by Puritans, 210; by Gov. Endi- 

cott, 211 ; substitute for palm 

tree, 218; a phallic emblem, 220 

McMaster, J. B., cited, 33 

Medicine administered at cock 

crowing in Europe, 290 
Medicine men turn to coyotes or 

wolves, 226 
Melanchthon thought dead oxen 

bred bees, 269 
Meleagros, pledge to, 2 
Memnomini, traditions of, 238 
Menstruous women, touch of, ster- 
ilizes flaxseed, 59; kill worms 
and beetles, 59; wither crops, 59; 
lull storms, no; not allowed by 
Omahas to touch horses, 153; 
touch of, withered vines, 259 
Meriahs, sacrifice of, 24 
Metziko made by Esthonians to 

protect from witches, 141 
Mexicans, human sacrifices of, 23 ; 



306 



INDEX 



kings take oath to make the sun 
shine and crops grow, 73 ; cere- 
mony of women to make tassels 
of maize grow, 86; uses cross as 
rain symbol, 108 ; oracles of, had 
perpetual fires, 173 

Mice, to prevent ravages of, Pliny 
cited, 84; generated by licking, 
223 ; made from fallen pears, 
264 

Michael's Week, wheat sown in, 
turns to cockle, 48 

Midsummer Day, witches active 
on, 89 ; fires in Europe, 178 ; live 
cats burned in at Pari9 and Metz, 
182; burning wheels used on, 183 

Milk got by magic yields less but- 
ter, 87 

Mills, L. H., cited, 151, 173 

Milton, John, quoted, n ; cited on 

■ halcyon, 95 ; quoted, 227 

Min, Egyptian diety, 242 

Minatarees, magic of, to make corn 
grow, 86; green corn festival 
of, 239 

Miscarriage prevented by tying 
scarlet thread on cattle, 224 

Mistletoe, fructifying power of, 
2ii ; brings luck to dairy, 212; 
sacred to Friga, 212 

Moeris turned to wolf by herbs, 225 

Mongols, sacred books of, read 
only in spring and summer, 116 

Montaigne, cited, 276 

Monte Rubello, 196 

Monuments, origin of, 13 

Moon, ancient idea of, 121 ; evil 
influence of, 127 ; favorable for 
breeding and plants, 129; in- 
fluence on vegetables, 130 

Mooney, James, cited, 65, 74; quot- 
ed, 239 

Moor beats lamb to cure headache, 
231 



Moore, M. V., quoted, 11 

Morton's, Thomas, New England 
Canaan, cited, 211 

Moses intercedes for cessation of 
storm, 102 

Mountain ash used to protect from 
witches, 139 

Movertus, cited, 269 

Mule, trial of, 236 

Mundas sacrificed at sowing of 
rice, 58, 83 

Murdock, John, cited, 264 

Murrain in reign of Charlemagne, 
160; one of herd burned to cure, 
160; calf killed in England to 
stop, 1 61 ; Sir Anthony Herbert, 
cited on, 162; Hindu cure for, 
162; image of caterpillar used, 
163 ; cured by yoking women to 
plow, 167; by needfire, 174; cat- 
tle driven over fire to prevent, 

179 

Music originated from noise made 

to drive away evil, 200 
Mussulman tradition of origin of 

vine, 256 
Myer, Isaac, cited, 77, 151, 226 



N 



Nahuas prayed for rain at tem- 
ple of Cozumel, 108 

Napoleon III., 283 

Naogeorgus, Thomas, name used by 
author of the Popish Kingdom, 
184 

Navarro, rain charm in, 105 

Necklace, worn by women after 
sowing in the Punjab, 52; be- 
lieved to have fertilizing power 
in Sarawak, 60 

Needfire, cattle healed by, 174; on 
the Isle of Lewis, 174; prohibited 



INDEX 



307 



by Pope Zachary, 179; phallic 

ceremony in connection with, 220 
Nergal, symbol of, 287 
Nerthus, car ' of, drawn by white 

cow, 231 
Neuri were thought by Scythians 

to turn to wolves, 225 
New Caledonia, rain charm in, 

105 
New Guinea, harvest festival in, 

250 
Night-hag, protection from, 144 
Nile believed to be outflow of 

Osiris, 216 
Nisson, fairy of Norwegians, 143 
Norse colonists took possession of 

land with fires, 175 
Norsemen ascribed magic power to 

horse's head, 85 
Norway, winds tied up by witches 

in, 115 



Octomis sacrifice virgin to rain 
gods, 168 

Odin, in time of famine a king 
sacrificed to, 72 

Odysseus, 116 

Ojibwa, custom at sowing, 59, 134; 
harvest feast of, 239 

Omaha Indians dance round water 
to bring rain, 105 

Onions sowed at full moon, 131 

Ordure of cows in ceremonies of 
Hindus and Parsis, 29 ; of bul- 
lucks used as a sin offering by 
Hebrews, 29; human, counteracts 
witches, 87 ; of cows used as a 
rain charm, 109 ; to protect from 
witches, 148 

Orinoco rain charm, 101 

Orion, tempests take rise in, 124, 
130 



Ormund took possession of land by 
fiery arrows, 176 

Oscilla hung on trees at Paganalia, 
261 

Osiris, 151; phallic image of, car- 
ried in procession, 220 

Ostrich, ceremonial use of feathers 
of, 51; of eggs, 263 

Ovid, 5, 9, 55 ; on the Robigalia, 
78, 113; on feast of Ceres, 187, 
189; origin of Lupercal, 206, 209 

Oxen punished by Hebrews and 
Athenians, 230 



Paganalia, 55, 261 

Palm tree, boughs of, protect 
beasts, 139; a symbol of genera- 
tive power, 218; branches of, car- 
ried in hand of Thoth and at 
feast of Tabernacles, 218; fecun- 
dation of, 218; a phallic symbol, 
220 

Pan, temple of, at Arcadia, '174 

Pancakes in Esthonian magic, 50 

Pankas propitiate gods before sow- 
ing, 57 

Parilia, festival of, 139, 188 

Parsis, law of, 37, 174 

Passover, date of, 154 

Pausanias, 71, 125, 174, 187, 196, 
205, 272 

Pawang, ceremony at rice harvest 
conducted by, 250 

Pawnees made human sacrifices at 
sowing, 22 ; sacrifice of a slave 
girl by, 22; moistened seedcorn 
with blood of a woman, 59 

Pear tree protects cattle, 147 

Pennant's Tour in Scotland, cited, 
139, 164 

Peppers grow better if planted by 



3 o8 



INDEX 



a red-headed man, 87; Negro 
folk-lore of, 87 

Perambulations introduced on ac- 
count of frequency of earth- 
quakes, 191 

Perpetual fires among Hebrews, 
Romans and Mexicans, 174 

Peruvians fasted after sowing, 62; 
white sheep sacrificed by, 62 ; 
capture sun in nets, 100; rain 
charm of, 106; had oracles with 
perpetual fires, 174; used fire test 
in selecting locations, 175 ; re- 
warded shepherds whose flocks 
increased, 217 

Petrie, W. M. F., cited, 242, 279 

Phallic emblems, 220; representa- 
tions in ancient art, 221 ; associ- 
ated with cross at Elephanta, 221 

Philippine Islands, sacrifice before 
sowing in, 23 

Philistines made images of mice 
to drive them away, 84 

Phillips, Henry, Jr., quoted, 135 

Phoenicians sacrificed children, 186; 
to trees, 263 

Pindar, legend of, 273 

Pinkerton's Voyages, cited, 48, 75, 
87, 116, 140, 148, 165, 194 

Piper of Hamelin, legend of, 200 

Pipiles sacrificed before planting, 
21 ; observed chastity before 
planting and indulgence at plant- 
ing, 63 

Piso, origin of name, 3 

Pitcairn, W. D., cited, 250 

Plague stayed by Israelites with 
serpents of gold, 85 ; by David, 

*59 
Plants, to deities and kings was 

attributed first knowledge of, 4 
Plat, Sir Hugh, cited, 131 
Pliny, cited, 3, 52, 60, 83, no, 125, 

131, 274, 286 



Plow, Egyptian and Greek, 32 ; ad- 
vice of Hesiod, 34; described by 
Virgil, 35 ; fastened to tails of 
horses by Irish, 46 ; damsels on 
the Rhine yoked to, 45 ; drawn 
round a village to cure murrain, 
167 

Plowing unlawful on certain days 
in India, 37 ; thought unwise on 
Good Friday in North Riding, 
37; season inaugurated by Chi- 
nese, 38; in India, 40; by Ger- 
mans, 40; customs with Scotch, 
43 

Plow-Monday, ceremonies of, 42; 
church records of, 44 

Plowshares of iron, antiquity of, 33 ; 
thought injurious, 33; first used 
in America, 33 

Plutarch, 38, 60, 68, 129, 131, 168, 
187, 215, 230 

Poisoners of cattle, detection of, 

147 
Poker, red-hot, used against witch- 
craft, 87 
Pope, Alexander, quoted, 102 
Poplar used in sacrifices to Zeus, 

213; most frequently struck with 

lightning next to oak, 216 
Popular Science Monthly, cited, 146, 

156 
Poseidon, Halcyone beloved by, 

96 
Potatoes should be planted in dark 

of moon, 130 
Poultry cared for by Saints, 282; 

protected by charms, 286 
Prescott, W. H., cited, 32 
Priapus, statues of were honored 

by beekeepers and shepherds, 220, 

272 
Primroses protect from witches, 142 
Processions cause and prevent rain, 

191 



INDEX 



309 



Procession Week, Googe quoted on, 

192 
Profanity brings luck in sowing, 51 
Prometheus, 173 
Ptah-Hotep, quoted, 2 
Pumpkins, origin of, 7 
Punishment for letting fire go out, 

177 
Purgation before harvest, 240 
Puritans forbid Maypoles, no 
Pushan, Vedic, deity, 151, 
Pythagoras condemned beans, 132, 

226 



Quetzal bird, song of, 6, 241 
Quetzalcoatl perfects man, 6 ; 

golden age of, 10 
Quiches, annals of, 7 

R 

Ra, 121 

Rain, controlled by Saints, 97; 
caught on Good Friday will not 
evaporate, 98 ; caused by witches 
flogging the brooks, 103 ; by 
drenching naked girl with water, 
104; using images of Saints, 105; 
with stones in Samoa, 105 ; by 
naked woman dragging a plow, 
106 ; by song, 107 ; by spitting, 
107; sacrifices of California In- 
dians for, 108 ; charms in the 
Punjab, 109; by burying a living 
ass, no; by hair and nails of 
corpse, 117; by corpse in Austria- 
Hungary, 119; thought to be fer- 
tilized by lightning, 187; caused 
and prevented by processions, 191 

Ragozin's, Z. A., Vedic India, cited, 
264 

Ralston, W. R. S., quoted, 49, 78, 



104, 106, 149, 161, 163, 166, 178, 
249, 279 

Ram carried round the flock by 
Greeks to cure murrain, 161 

Rats, in diocese of Autun, prose- 
cution of, 236 

Ratzel, F., cited, 58, 72, 253 

Reclus, E., cited, 73; quoted, 152 

Red cock sacrificed in Ceylon to 
heal the sick, 290 

Red crabs injurious to bees, 275 

Refuge for field spirits left in In- 
dia, 82 

Regalia of kings used to cure 
plague in Celebes, 168 

Relics of St. Taurin cause rain, 191 ; 
of St. Piat prevent it, 191 

Resurrection, mythical elements in 
story of, 219 

Rhine, rain charm on the, 103 

Rhys, John, cited, 88, 148, 179, 286 

Rice, slave hewn to pieces before 
sowing, 23 ; sowing in Sumatra, 
51; sowing accompanied by mu- 
sic in India, 51; special cere- 
monies of Malays in sowing, 55; 
sacrifices of Mundas in connec- 
tion with, 83 ; Pawang begins 
harvests in Malay, 250 

Rig Veda, hymn of, 279 

Rizpah, 113 

Robigalia, 78; meaning of, 79; 
Ovid's story of, 79 

Robin, bloody milk caused by kill- 
ing, 140 

Rodd, Rennell, cited, 107 

Rogation Week, perambulation in, 
192, 193 

Romans, earliest surnames of, 3 ; 
taught cultivation by Ceres, 5; 
proverb of, 68 ; thought hair cut 
on a ship brought on a storm, 
117; women struck with thongs 
of goat for barrenness, 207 



3io 



INDEX 



Romulus, Arval priesthood estab- 
lished by, 194 

Rooster, trial in Swiss village of, 
229 

Roth, Henry Ling, cited, 253 

Roumanians, rain charm of, m 

Rudradeva, deity in Bengal, 111 

Rusalkas, expulsion of, 77 

Ruskin, John, cited, 95 

Russian penal code on vampires, 
118 

Russians bury a man alive with 
black dog to save the herd, 160 

Ruthania, live cock burned in, to 
cure plague, 161 



Saato, Samoan rain god, 92 
Sacrifices, human, by Mexicans, 21 ; 

natives of Gold Coast, 22 ; of 

Guinea, 23 ; by Khonds, 24 ; 

Dyaks, 72; at harvest festivals 

in Peru, 240 
St. Agobard, 113 
St. Ailbhe, 80 
St. Anthony, protector of animals, 

145 ; Image of, carried by Rosa 

Bonheur, 145 ; healed hogs, 170 
St. Augustine, 122 
St. Bernard's festival at Monte 

San Bernardo, 196 
St. Bodham healed cattle, 166 
St. Columba's tunic shaken for rain, 

no; birds come at call of, 145 
St. Dasius, martyrdom of, 54 
St. David's Day lucky for sowing, 

48 ; Welshmen wear leeks on, 64 
St. Dunstan, evil repute of, 257 
St. Edith as Roman Robigo, 79 
St. Eloy condemned amulets, 171 
St. Foutin, phallic offerings to, 221 
St. Gall, bears obeyed, 145 



St. George of Capadocia, patron 

saint of farmers, 148 
St. George's Day, witches active on, 

8 7 
St. Gervais' Day, a critical period, 

96 
St. Goar, 145 

St. Hubert healed dogs, 170 
St. James' image punished in a 

storm, 115 
St. John, fire worship in honor of, 

177; fires forbidden on day of, 

179 ; festival of, described by 

Barnaby Googe, 184 
St. Johnswort, burning wheels 

bound with, 184 
St. Legearde looked after geese, 

281 
St. Leonard, 145, 282 
St. Loy looked after horses and 

kine, 170 
St. Mark's Day, corn blessed on, 

194 
St. Patrick's Day, 154 
St. Patrick's Purgatory, 261 
St. Peter's Day, driving out the but- 
terfly on, 198 
St. Peter's image drenched as a 

rain charm, 105 
St. Piat, rain prevented by relics 

of, 191 
St. Pol de Leon, 80 
Saints, images of used as rain 

charms, 105 ; influence on fruit, 

257 

St. Stephen's Day, horses bled on, 
170 

St. Swithin's Day, saying of, 97 ; 
apples christened on, 257 

St. Taurin's relics as rain charm, 
191 

St. Vlas, murrain expelled by carry- 
ing image of, 160, 167 

Samoans, 92 



INDEX 



3ii 



Samson, Story of foxes, 188; bees 
found by, 270 

Sandys, George, quoted, 10 

Santals, harvest home of, 253 

Sarawak, full moon observed by na- 
tives of, 132; feast of first fruits 
in, 252 

Sardinia, criminal laws against an- 
imals in, 233 

Satan, first appearance of, 227, 
258 

Saturn, golden age of, 9; old agri- 
cultural deity, 50; evil influence 
of, 126 

Saturnalia, 53; sacrifices at, 54; 
followed by fasting, 62 

Saxon Leechdoms, cited, 165 

Schweinfurth, G., cited, 287 

Scotchman leaves part of the crop 
for the Old Woman, 246 

Scot, Reginald, 137, 148, 169, 200 

Scott, Sir Walter, cited, 96; quoted, 
180 

Scythians thought the Neuri turned 
to wolves, 225 

Secret supplicator, Chinese official 
formerly, 81 

Seed, how first known to reproduce 
itself, 15 

Seedcorn of Pawnees moistened with 
blood of a woman, 59 

Sekhet-Aaru, 76 

Seminole Indians, festival of first 
fruits among, 240 

Seneca, cited, 103 

Senecas, legend of, 7 

Serpent set up by Israelites to stay 
the plague, 85 ; used as rain 
charm, 107 ; generated from spi- 
nal marrow of men, 223 ; punish- 
ment of, 227 ; poison of, cured by 
broth of a cock, 286 

Setting hens, odd number of eggs 
should be used in, 281 ; must not 



be done on Friday or Valentine 
Day, 282 

Seven, a sacred number with Chero- 
kee, 65 

Shades of the dead, their influence 
on the living, 75 ; must be propi- 
tiated, 75 ; a Hessian folk-tale of, 
75; preside over growing yams, 

75 
Shakespeare, cited, 95, 144, 200; 
Julius Caesar, quoted, 205 ; Mer- 
chant of Venice, quoted, 225 ; 
Hamlet, quoted, 285, 287 
Shang-ti, prayer for grain to, 88 
Sheep sheared in increase of moon, 
130; driven through split oak to 
heal, 165 
Shetland seamen buy wind, 115 
Shi King, cited, 2; quoted, 4, 47; 

237, 244 
Shingles should be laid in dark of 

moon, 132 
Shokas drive away evil with flying 

prayers, 159 
Shrew-ash, wounds of shrewmouse 

cured by, 165 
Shrewmouse, cattle injured by, 165 ; 

Romans thought poisonous, 165 
Siam, harvest festival in, 252 
Siamese, spring ceremony of, 38 
Silver plows hung in churches, 44 
Simcox, E. J., cited, 2; quoted, 3, 

38, 77, 81, 151, 177 
Simpson, Kate A., quoted, 67 
Sioux ceremony to make corn grow, 

59 

Skeat, W. W., 55, 86, 106, 251; 
quoted, 281 

Skeleton used as rain charm in New 
Caledonia, 105 

Skull, Romans protected from cater- 
pillars with, 84; carried by wo- 
men of Borneo in harvest festi- 
vals, 252 



312 



INDEX 



Slavs killed a goat at sowing, 63 

Smith, George, cited, 12 

Smith, Robertson, 154, 155, 186, 245, 
262 

Society Islands, 8 

Solomon, -palm trees in temple of, 
218; demons expelled by formula 
of, 227 

Solon, law of, 230 

Song for bringing rain, 106 

Sorcerers, name of man used in 
conjuring by, 116 

Sorcery, danger to crops from, 86 ; 
counteracted by needfire, 174 

Soul transferred to fowl, 288 

South Sea Islands, reclaiming lands 
in, 26 

Southern Polynesia, bones of men 
used as rain charms in, 116 

Sow condemned at Falaise, 233 ; for 
murdering a child, 233 

Sowers, decorated with silver in 
India, 52 

Sowing inaugurated by Raja, 57; 
Mundas sacrifice goat at, 58 ; 
ceremonies of Kharwars and Pan- 
kas, 57 ; a period of license, 61 ; 
sexual license to impart fertility 
to crop, 62; of mingled seeds for- 
bidden by Israelites, 64 

Sowthistle, cure for plague, dis- 
covered by Charles the Great, 
169 

Speculum Mundi, quoted, 268 

Spence, Sir Patrick, ballad of, 123 

Spencer, Edmund, quoted, 213, 260 

Spirit of vegetation in animal form, 
246 

Spitting to bring rain by Hopi, 107 ; 
protects from witches, 141 

Spofford's Almanac, cited, 93 ; on 
bees as weather indicators, 276 

Springs, gospel read at, on Ascen- 
sion Day, 192 



Squirrels burned in Easter fires, 181 

Stones as rain charms in Samoa, 
105 

Storms caused by devils, 102; sent 
as punishments, 102 ; attracted and 
repelled by song, 104 ■ 

Straw burnt on Hallow Eve pro- 
tects from the witches, 177 

Stubbs, Maypole described by, 
quoted by Brand, 210 

Suetonius, cited, 284 

Sugar cane, time of day for plant- 
ing) 55 5 ceremonies at cutting 
in India, 253 

Suicide becomes vampire, 118; 
causes drought, 119 

Sumatra, black cat used as rain 
charm in, 106 

Sume introduced agriculture among 
Brazilians, 6 

Sun, Joshua stayed and Hera hast- 
ened, 100; Fijis entangle in reeds, 
100; Peruvians capture in nets, 
100 

Sunshine, ancient belief of artificial 
production of, 98 ; formulas of 
Egyptians for making, 99 

Surya, festival to, 181 

Swine, driven over sown fields, 60; 
Egyptians rejected flesh of, 129; 
evil spirits driven into, 158 

Swinging as an agricultural rite, 
90 

Symbols of animals in architecture, 
232 . 

Syrian magic against caterpillars, 
84; manner of fertilizing trees, 
263 



Tabb, John B., quoted, 91 
Tabernacles, feast of, 218 
Table, leg of, bandaged to cure 
beast, 168 



INDEX 



3i3 



Tacitus, 19, 53, 208, 231, 262, 277 
Tahvanes, invoked by Finns to 

care for herds, 202 
Tammuz, vegetable life quickened 
by annual weeping for, 199, 219 
Tapuans, sowing custom of, 51 
Tari Pennu, goddess of India, 23 
Taylor, W. C, quoted, 46 
Teit, James, cited, 112, 133 
Tellus, 5 ; cattle driven through 

flames at feast of, 188 
Tempestarii, sorcery of, 114 
Tennessee, snake ueed as rain charm 

in, 107 
Tennyson, Alfred, cited, 126 
Tertullan, cited, 101 
Teutons beat their cattle to make 

them fruitful, 207 
Tezcatlipoca, human sacrifices to, 

240 
Theocritus, 35, 96; on Adonis, 200; 

at feast of Demeter, 242 
Thessaly, songs as rain charms in, 

106 
Thibe, King, 172 

Thompson River Indians, rain 
thought urine of Great Chief by, 
in; kill a frog as rain charm, 
117; think moon formerly an In- 
dian, 133 
Thoth, palm branch carried by, 218 
Thrasylius, sacrifice of, 113 
Tiberius, temple of Flora conse- 
crated in reign of, 208 
Tibetans, healing method of, 158 
Timber cut at change of moon, 125 ; 

at full moon, 130 
Times, N. Y., cited, 194, 277 
Timoor, belief about bees in, 278 
Tin-egin, a cure for murrain on 

the Isle of Lewis, 174 
Tlaloc, Mexican deity, 21 
Toad, bloody milk brought by kill- 
ing of, 140 



Tonacatepetl, 6 

Tonquin, expulsion of evil in, 129 
Tony Partiger's garden, 258 
Torches carried round sheepfold in 
Servia, 179; carried on Corpus 
Christi day, 190; to rid fields of 
vermin in France, 201 
Toy, C. H., quoted, 219 
Tree, of life, Babylonian, 12; deity 
in earliest times, 219; as deities, 
263 ; decorated with women's 
ornaments to impart fertility, 263 
Tree spirits, influence of, 82 
Tullius, Hostilius, cited, no 
Turmeric, red color of imparted by 

blood, 24 
Turner, George, cited, 74, 93 
Tusayans, snake ceremony for corn 

and rain among, 70 
Tusculum, law of, 244 
Tusser, Thomas, quoted, 43 ; on 
signs of weather, 96 ; of the moon, 
.122, 131, 170 
Tylor, E. B., 20, 22, 23, 29, 77, 89, 

122, 226, 262, 277 
Tyrol, use of hair in making hail- 
stones by witches of, 117 

U 

Uist; lullabies to cows sung by milk- 
maids of, 203 

Ulysses, 73, 99 

Unruly animals prevented from 
straying, 140 

Urine, Roman matrons sprinkled 
image of earth goddess with, 29 ; 
Highlanders sprinkle cattle with, 
148 



Vacuna, goddess of leisure, wor- 
shiped by husbandmen, 244 

Vair, Leonard, fifteenth century 
work of, cited, 235 



3*4 



INDEX 



Vampires, drought brought by, 118; 

Russian Penal code on, n8 
Varro, 124 
Varuna, m 
Venus, 129 
Vermin driven away by charms, 

200 ; exorcised in Spain, 201 ; by 

torches and exhortation in France, 

201 
Vinalia, full moon not desired at, 

124; in honor of Jupiter, 261 
Vines withered by touch of men- 

strous women, 259; protected by 

Liber, 261 
Virgil, 3; description of plow, 35; 

moon signs, 123 ; cited, 195, 212, 

225, 245 ; on breeding bees from 

oxen, 269, 272 
Virgin, Wends' tradition of, 49; 

image of, used as rain charm, 

104 
Vodyony, patron of beekeepers, 279 
Voightland, May Day fires in, 179 
Volcanoes most active at full moon, 

133 
Volos succeeded by St. Vlas, 160; 

pleating the beard of, 249 
Volsinium, legend of, no 
Vulcan's festival dangerous to fig 

trees, 261 

W 

Wagner, Leopold, cited, 98 
Walton, Isaac, cited on barnacle 

geese, 291 
Wassailing fruit trees, 266 
Weather, signs and lore of, 91 ; 

influence of Saints' Days on, 96; 

moon's omens of, 122 ; foretold by 

bees, 276 
Wells, gospel read at, 192 
Wends drove cattle round oaks, 146 
Werewolves, antiquity of, belief in, 

225; traced to Pythagoras, 226 



West African tribes make rain 

charms from hair of corpse, 117; 

Marimos killed human beings in 

the, 23 
Wheat, Bavarian custom at sowing, 

50 
Whirlwinds, diabolical agencies the 

cause of, 115 
White bulls used by Druids, 212; 

at Bury St. Edmunds, 212 
White cock buried on Midsummer 

Eve in Russia, 182 
White cow in Norse mythology, 

231 
White, Gilbert, cited, 165 ; on hon- 
ey-dew, 274 
White's, A. D., Warfare of Science, 

cited, 191, 292 
Wicked spirits foiled by bonfires, 

178 
Wickerwork images filled with live 

men burned by Druids, 182 
Wiedemann, A., cited, 242 
Wier, James, cited, 220, 229 
Wild huntsman, in Sweden last 

sheaf given to, 248 
Wilde, Lady, 143, 154, 163, 176, 182, 

278 
Will-o'-the-wisps saiu to be un- 
blessed spirits, 37 
Willows regarded as emblems of 

moisture, 114; protect animals, 

141 ; carried in May processions, 

211; Mandans strew medicine 

lodge with, 216 
Winds attributed to giants in the 

Edda, 115 
Wine, phallic images bathed with, 

221 
Witchcraft, a test of on the Kama, 

146 ; honeysuckle protects from, 

279 
Witches active on Midsummer Day 

and St. George's Day, 87 ; charm 



INDEX 



3i5 



milk by boiling chips in pail, 87; 
foils for the charm, 87 ; cause rain 
by playing in water courses, 103 ; 
by lashing brooks with brooms, 
117; use combed hair to make 
hail, 117; various kinds of, 136; 
protecting against, 141 ; kept 
away by fire, 177; 'make ladders 
of knots and feathers, 287 
Wither, George, quoted, 193 
Wizards, winds tied up in knots by, 

"5 

Women, plowing by, to cure mur- 
rain, 167 

Wood-Martin, W. G., cited, 116, 
166 

Wood-woman, Roumanians leave 
flax in the f eld for, 246 



Yakima medicine men punished, 
105 

Yakuts, 262 

Yams, origin of, 8; Polynesians 
think shades of ancestors control 
growth of, 76; festivals in New 
Guinea, 250; on Gold coast, 252; 
sacrifices at harvest festival, 253 

Yegory's Day sacred to St. George, 
148; song of, 149 

Yew tree disliked by bees, 275 

Ymir, frost giant, 231 

Young, Ernest, cited, 39, 253 

Yule, origin of, 184; Servian say- 
ing, 184 



X 



Xerxes, white horse preceded in re- 
treat of, 231 

Xiuhtecutli, festival of, 221, sacri- 
fices to, 221 

Xiatine, bees used in warfare at, 
276 

Xochipilli, deity of plants, 241 



Zachary, Pope, needfires prohibited 

by, 179 
Zermat, bells rung for fair weather 

in, 100 
Zeus, poplar used in rites of, 213 
Zigzag symbols used in decorating 

altars of rain gods, 107 
Zoroaster, 151; Gathas of, 173 
Zululand, harvest festivals in, 247 



SEP 36 ^"'■•- 



